toothless
part of speech
adjective (toothless)
meaning for a pupil
1) Toothless means having no teeth, or having lost teeth: a toothless baby, a toothless grin. tree →
2) Toothless also means having no real power to make people obey: a toothless law, a toothless rule that no one enforces. tree →
3) Toothless can also mean feeble or useless, as an insult. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life babies and some old people are toothless, and children have gappy, toothless grins when baby teeth fall out. In news and citizenship lessons, a "toothless" rule, watchdog or body has no power to punish. In "How to Train Your Dragon", Toothless is the name of the dragon (he can pull in his teeth). Phrases: "toothless grin", "toothless law", "toothless watchdog".
examples
- The baby gave us a big toothless smile. tree →
- After losing two front teeth, my brother had a toothless grin. tree →
- Grandpa takes out his false teeth and looks toothless. tree →
- Without fines, the new rule is toothless. tree →
- Critics called the committee a toothless watchdog. tree →
- In the film, Toothless is a black Night Fury dragon. tree →
- Some whales are toothless and filter food instead. tree →
- What have we to do with this toothless fool? tree →
note
Formed from tooth + less ("without"). A law with "teeth" is one that can punish; a toothless law cannot. As a name (Toothless the dragon) it has a capital T.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «toothless» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.