witless

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lacking intelligence, understanding, or sound judgment; foolish

   The narrator came to pity the witless souls who had assumed that power made them safe.

2. 2
   adj

   lacking conscious thought or awareness; mindless

   The creature continued its witless movement after the signal had stopped.

From Middle English witles and Old English witleas ("senseless"), equivalent to wit in its older sense of knowledge or understanding + -less. It therefore originally meant without understanding, before developing its modern disapproving sense of foolish or mindless.

Topics