Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Headless

Head′less

,
Adj.
[AS.
heáfodleás
.]
1.
Having no head; beheaded;
as, a
headless
body, neck, or carcass
.
2.
Destitute of a chief or leader.
Sir W. Raleigh.
3.
Destitute of understanding or prudence; foolish; rash; obstinate; mindless.
[Obs.]
Witless headiness in judging or
headless
hardiness in condemning.
Spenser.

Webster 1828 Edition


Headless

HEADLESS

,
Adj.
hed'less. Having no head; beheaded; as a headless body, neck or carcass.
1.
Destitute of a chief or leader.
2.
Destitute of understanding or prudence; rash; obstinate.

Definition 2024


headless

headless

English

Adjective

headless (not comparable)

  1. Without a head; decapitated.
    How did the headless horseman see to chase Ichabod?
  2. Without leadership.
    The headless army blundered along after the death of their general, accomplishing nothing.
    • Sir Walter Raleigh
      His forsaken soldiers, being now a headless company, and no longer an army to be feared, obtained nevertheless a reasonable composition from the Carthaginians []
  3. (linguistics, of a phrase or compound) Not having a head morpheme or word.
  4. (computing) Running without a graphical user interface; running without any attached output device (e.g., monitor) or input device (e.g., keyboard, mouse).
    • 2003, William Boswell, Inside Windows Server 2003, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 978-0-7357-1158-7, page 62:
      /redirect. Used for console redirection in headless servers.
    • 2007, Carla Schroder, Linux Networking Cookbook, O’Reilly Media (2008), ISBN 978-0-596-10248-7, page 47:
      Routers typically run headless, without a keyboard or monitor.
    • 2010, Charles Bell et al., MySQL High Availability: Tools for Building Robust Data Centers, O'Reilly Media, ISBN 978-0-596-80730-6, page 278:
      This is not unexpected for a Windows system running as a virtual machine or a headless server []
  5. (of beer) Without a head of foam.
  6. (obsolete) Heedless.
    • 1579, E. K. (Edward Kirke ?), Notes on Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calender
      If any one will rashly blame such his choice of old and unwonted words, him may I more justly blame and condemn, either of witless headiness in judging, or of headless hardiness in condemning.
    • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepherd’s Calendar, John Ball, London, published 1732
      THENOT: Cuddy, I wot thou kenſt little Good, / So vainly to advance thy headleſs Hood.

Derived terms

Translations