a. [f. SPINE sb.1]
1. Of animals, plants, etc.: Having no spines or sharp-pointed processes; not spinous.
1827. Griffith, trans. Cuvier, V. 223. Spineless Rats of the Old Continent.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 49. In domesticated plants they [spines] often entirely disappear, as in the Apple and Pear, the wild varieties of which are spiny, and the cultivated ones spineless.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 170/2. Scales of Cones [of a pine] spineless at apex.
1890. Cent. Dict., s.v. Perch, Spineless perch, a pirate-perch.
2. Having a weak or diseased spine; deprived or destitute of the natural strength or support of the spine; exhausted, limp.
1860. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., iv. A whole family of Sprites, consisting of a remarkably stout father and three spineless sons.
1876. [Countess von Bothmer], Germ. Home Life, 237. The sole heir to a vast property was a delicate, spineless boy, a child whose bones had a cruel tendency to work through the skin.
1877. W. S. Gilbert, Foggerty’s Fairy (1892), 97. He found Mrs. Pintle reclining in a spineless way on a comfortable sofa.
b. Lacking moral force, resolution or vigor; marked by weakness or instability of character; feeble, flabby, irresolute.
1885. The Voice (N.Y.), 17 Dec., 2/5. We are sick of this spineless way of treating violators of law.
1891. Miss Dowie, Girl in Karp., 209. She had married this spineless person, broken him of his drinking habits.
1892. Kipling, in Pall Mall Gaz., 24 March, 3/1. Clamouring for the aid of a spineless Government.
