1
: having no teeth
2
a
: lacking in sharpness or bite
spoke in toothless generalities—
Arthur Hepner
Arthur Hepner
b
: lacking in means of enforcement or coercion : ineffectual
Examples of toothless in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Rogozin, known for his bellicose but usually toothless rhetoric, threatened to halt exports of RD-180 engines for US military missions on the Atlas V.
—Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 30 July 2024
But as Kennedy’s number two, Johnson had been consigned to symbolic foreign travel, stewardship of the country’s space effort, and leadership of a toothless presidential committee on equal employment opportunity.
—Marc J. Selverstone / Made By History, TIME, 12 Aug. 2024
But over the last year, Putin’s ultimate aims have come to look rather different: to weaken the West, expose U.S. hegemony as hollow, and reveal NATO to be toothless and unreliable.
—Joshua Yaffa, Foreign Affairs, 20 Apr. 2015
The band was part of a wave of earnest pop-rock that crossed genres, alternately praised as deft and open-hearted, or denigrated by critics as toothless soft-rock.
—John Wenzel, The Denver Post, 25 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for toothless 
Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 30 July 2024
But as Kennedy’s number two, Johnson had been consigned to symbolic foreign travel, stewardship of the country’s space effort, and leadership of a toothless presidential committee on equal employment opportunity.
—Marc J. Selverstone / Made By History, TIME, 12 Aug. 2024
But over the last year, Putin’s ultimate aims have come to look rather different: to weaken the West, expose U.S. hegemony as hollow, and reveal NATO to be toothless and unreliable.
—Joshua Yaffa, Foreign Affairs, 20 Apr. 2015
The band was part of a wave of earnest pop-rock that crossed genres, alternately praised as deft and open-hearted, or denigrated by critics as toothless soft-rock.
—John Wenzel, The Denver Post, 25 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for toothless
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'toothless.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Toothless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toothless. Accessed 19 Sep. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
toothless
adjective
tooth·less
ˈtüth-ləs 
: having no teeth
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