boneless

Etymology

From Middle English bonles, banles, from Old English bānlēas (“boneless”), from Proto-Germanic *bainalausaz, equivalent to bone + -less. Cognate with Scots baneless (“boneless”), Dutch beenloos (“boneless; legless”), German beinlos (“legless”), Swedish benlös (“boneless”), Icelandic beinlaus (“boneless”).

adj

1. Without bones, especially as pertaining to meat or poultry prepared for eating.
2. (chiefly Britain, figurative) Lacking strength, courage, or resolve; spineless.
   I'm scared, I'm just boneless with fright. 1916, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 18, in Uneasy Money
   I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum's circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit … which I most desired to see was the one described as "The Boneless Wonder." My parents judged that the spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and I have waited fifty years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench. 1931, Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 13 May
   Had the Green consortium made a straight bid, boneless fund managers would easily have outvoted private investors. 11 November 2006, Graham Searjeant, “Loyalty pays off for M&S shareholders”, in The Times, London
   In his final years he John Ogdon] gave an interview to an American journalist who noticed that "his handshake is a boneless fadeaway["]. 11 May 2014, Ivan Hewett, “Piano Man: a Life of John Ogdon by Charles Beauclerk, review: A new biography of the great British pianist whose own genius destroyed him [print version: A colossus off-key, 10 May 2014, p. R27]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)