toothless

Etymology

From Middle English totheles, toþeles, from Old English tōþlēas, from Proto-Germanic *tanþlausaz (“toothless”), equivalent to tooth + -less. Cognate with Dutch tandeloos (“toothless”), German Low German tannlos (“toothless”), German zahnlos (“toothless”), Danish tandløs (“toothless”), Swedish tandlös (“toothless”), Icelandic tannlaus (“toothless”).

adj

  1. Having no teeth.
    a toothless old man
  2. (figurative) Weak; having no ability to enforce something.
    The treaty was toothless because of the lack of participation from the undersigned.
    Not tell? ha! ha! I could smile / At this old and toothless wile. 1603, Ben Jonson, The Entertainment at Althorp
    Bans of the sale of human remains across platforms like Facebook, Etsy, Instagram and eBay are toothless and poorly enforced, Huffer said. And when a page does get shut down, he said, it just pops up on a different website. 2021-10-10, Caroline Anders, “A TikTok bone salesman’s wall of spines reignites ethical debate over selling human remains”, in The Washington Post

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