a. [f. STAVE sb.1 + -LESS.] a. Of a rune: Having no upright stem. rare. b. Of a barrel: Having no staves.
1866–7. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. Introd. 135. We may even have the side-stroke alone, the stave being absent; thus ′ is A in the staveless Helsing-runes.
1892. Daily News, 6 Aug., 6/2. His system of making staveless barrels from one sheet of wood, instead of from a number of staves.
