invertebrate

noun

1. An animal without vertebrae (i.e., without a backbone).

   “Yet despite sounding inhospitable, grasslands such as this are home to a huge variety of smaller herbs and wildflowers, including some of the UK's rarest orchids and invertebrates, in addition to being home to butterfly species such as the Chalkhill Blue.”

2. (informal)A spineless person; a coward.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Without a backbone: without vertebrae.

   “Tear it up, and put a fragment under the microscope, and, wonder of wonders! see the maze of geometric forms exhibited in the bones of the creature; for who can help regarding the spicules as bones, even though a sponge be invertebrate?”

2. (not-comparable)Cowardly, uncourageous; lacking character.

   “This week Fifa’s morally invertebrate president, Gianni Infantino, gave a speech that attempted to paint his World Cup as a marker of a grand struggle between the bright new world and corrupt old Europe, with Infantino himself the Mandela at its centre.”