Lacking protection or support:
— A defenseless child.

synonym: defenceless.

Roget 665: in danger etc. n.; endangered etc. v.; fraught with danger; dangerous, hazardous, perilous, parlous, periculous^†; unsafe, unprotected etc. (safe, protect) etc. 664; insecure.    untrustworthy; built upon.   sand, on a sandy basis; wildcat.    defenseless, fenceless, guardless^†, harborless; unshielded; vulnerable, expugnable^†, exposed; open to etc. (liable) 177.    aux abois [Fr.], at bay; on the wrong side of the wall, on a lee shore, on the rocks.    at stake, in question; precarious, critical, ticklish; slippery, slippy; hanging by a thread etc. v.; with a halter round one's neck; between the hammer and the anvil, between Scylla and Charybdis, between a rock and a hard place, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between two fires; on the edge of a precipice, on the brink of a precipice, on the verge of a precipice, on the edge of a volcano; in the lion's den, on slippery ground, under fire; not out of the wood.    unwarned, unadmonished, unadvised, unprepared etc. 674; off one's guard etc. (inexpectant) 508^†.    tottering; unstable, unsteady; shaky, top-heavy, tumbledown, ramshackle, crumbling, waterlogged; helpless, guideless^†; in a bad way; reduced to the last extremity, at the last extremity; trembling in the balance; nodding to its fall etc. (destruction) 162.    threatening etc. 909; ominous, illomened; alarming etc. (fear) 860; explosive.    adventurous etc. (rash) 863, (bold) 861.    ... show more

Roget 158: powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent; inefficient, ineffective; inept; unfit, unfitted; unqualified, disqualified; unendowed; inapt, unapt; crippled, disabled etc. v.; armless^†.    harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu [Lat.], unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable.    paralytic, paralyzed; palsied, imbecile; nerveless, sinewless^†, marrowless^†, pithless^†, lustless^†; emasculate, disjointed; out of joint, out of gear; unnerved, unhinged; water-logged, on one's beam ends, rudderless; laid on one's back; done up, dead beat, exhausted, shattered, demoralized; graveled etc. (in difficulty) 704; helpless, unfriended^†, fatherless; without a leg to stand on, hors de combat [Fr.], laid on the shelf.    null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing; ineffectual etc. (failing) 732; inadequate etc. 640; inefficacious etc. (useless) 645.    ... show more

Roget 160: weak, feeble, debile^†; impotent etc. 158; relaxed, unnerved, etc. v.; sapless, strengthless^†, powerless; weakly, unstrung, flaccid, adynamic^†, asthenic^†; nervous.    soft, effeminate, feminate^†, womanly.    frail, fragile, shattery^†; flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread; rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky; craichy^†; drooping, tottering etc. v.. broken, lame, withered, shattered, shaken, crazy, shaky; palsied etc. 158; decrepit.    languid, poor, infirm; faint, faintish^†; sickly etc. (disease) 655; dull, slack, evanid^†, spent, short-winded, effete; weather-beaten; decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear.    unstrengthened etc. 159^†, unsupported, unaided, unassisted; aidless^†, defenseless etc. 158; cantilevered (support) 215.    on its last legs; weak as a child, weak as a baby, weak as a chicken, weak as a cat, weak as a rat; weak as water, weak as water gruel, weak as gingerbread, weak as milk and water; colorless etc. 429.    ... show more

Having no protecting or concealing cover.

synonym: naked.

Lacking weapons for self-defense.

synonym: defenceless.

Without defense:
— The child was standing in the middle of the crossfire, defenselessly.

synonyms: defenceless, defencelessly, defenselessly.