boneless

adj

Etymology: From Middle English bonles, banles, from Old English bānlēas (“boneless”), from Proto-Germanic *bainalausaz, equivalent to bone + -less. Cognate with Scots baneless (“boneless”), Dutch beenloos (“boneless; legless”), German beinlos (“legless”), Swedish benlös (“boneless”), Icelandic beinlaus (“boneless”).

1. Without bones, especially as pertaining to meat or poultry prepared for eating.

   “Near-synonyms: boned, deboned”

   “boneless chicken”

2. Without pizza crust; without pizza bones.
3. Lacking strength, courage, or resolve.

   “I'm scared, I'm just boneless with fright.”

   “I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum's circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit … which I most desired to see was the one described as "The Boneless Wonder." My parents judged that the spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and I have waited fifty years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.”

4. Of a couch, cushionlike due to lacking a hard internal frame.