a. [f. as prec. + -LESS.] Having no function: chiefly in physiological sense. Cf. FUNCTION sb. 3 a.
1836. Fonblanque, Eng. under Seven Admin. (1837), III. 296. Its nominal functionless minister.
1839–47. Todd, Cycl. Anat., III. 238/1. Clavicles … almost obsolete and functionless.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. i. 29. The os coccyx in man, though functionless as a tail, plainly represents this part in other vertebrate animals.
1879. A. W. Bennett, in Academy, 32. A fifth stamen, which however is functionless, so far as the ordinary purpose of stamens is concerned.
1889. Pall Mall G., 13 Nov., 6/2. These organs are quite functionless as wings.
1894. J. R. Illingworth, Personality, ii. (1895), 52. Capabilities … which we cannot conceive ultimately frustrated and functionless.
