bloodless

adjective

blood·​less ˈbləd-ləs How to pronounce bloodless (audio)
1
: deficient in or free from blood
2
: not accompanied by loss or shedding of blood
a bloodless victory
3
: lacking in spirit or vitality
4
: lacking in human feeling
bloodless statistics
bloodlessly adverb
bloodlessness noun

Examples of bloodless in a Sentence

They took control of the government in a bloodless coup. Her speeches are dull and bloodless. a bunch of bloodless numbers and statistics His face was bloodless with fear.
Recent Examples on the Web That would be a change for Portugal, which in April celebrates the 50-year anniversary of a bloodless military insurrection that overthrew the country’s right-wing dictatorship. Dominique Soguel, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 Mar. 2024 When my daughter, Liv, filled out college applications for the University of California system, five short essays were required, giving students a chance to make an impression beyond bloodless grades and GPA. Erik Himmelsbach-Weinstein, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2024 Bishop came to power in 1979 after overthrowing Grenada’s leader, Sir Eric Gairy, in a nearly bloodless coup. Rennie Svirnovskiy, Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2023 Related Stories The resulting series is big, bold and beautiful, but maybe just a bit bloodless. Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Feb. 2024 The segment immediately following that bloodbath is itself bloodless, but only because a French neutron bomb turns all of Springfield into an empty, echoing graveyard of dusty corpses, with Homer (caught testing out a bomb shelter) seemingly the last man on Earth. Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 24 Nov. 2023 The world that Potter conjured in her books — whimsical but dark, full of bloodless observations about the food chain — appealed as much to adults as to children. Jess Bidgood, New York Times, 19 Jan. 2024 Closely related to jellyfish, oxygen simply diffuses into their bloodless tissues, which are mostly water. Max Bennett, Discover Magazine, 15 Jan. 2024 One of her first assignments was to help retouch and digitize thousands of images of 9/11 victims, known internally by the bloodless code name PENTTBOM. Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bloodless.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of bloodless was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near bloodless

Cite this Entry

“Bloodless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bloodless. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

bloodless

adjective
blood·​less ˈbləd-ləs How to pronounce bloodless (audio)
1
: having less blood than normal
2
: done without bloodshed
a bloodless revolution
3
: lacking in spirit or feeling
bloodlessly adverb
bloodlessness noun

Medical Definition

bloodless

adjective
blood·​less ˈbləd-ləs How to pronounce bloodless (audio)
: free from or lacking blood
a bloodless surgical field
bloodlessly adverb
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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