as in unfortunate
having, prone to, or marked by bad luck
the hapless motorist had barely paid his bill and driven away from the body shop when a truck sideswiped his car
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hapless
In a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains, friends likened my outfit to that of Meredith Blake, the hapless fiancée in The Parent Trap.
—
C Pam Zhang,
Travel + Leisure,
11 June 2026
Bargatze likes to be the butt of the joke, casting himself as the hapless but well-meaning dad who can barely keep track of his day-to-day needs.
—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
5 June 2026
Cherry plays Gary, a hapless, low-key type of guy who goes on a blind date, to avenge infidelity in his jaded long-term relationship, with the much younger, devil-may-care Ell, played by Borat breakout Maria Bakalova.
—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
4 June 2026
But Faris and Hall, whose hapless BFFs Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks had by then become its A-list faces, continued with Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 alone.
—
Entertainment Weekly,
2 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for hapless
C Pam Zhang,
Travel + Leisure,
11 June 2026
Bargatze likes to be the butt of the joke, casting himself as the hapless but well-meaning dad who can barely keep track of his day-to-day needs.
—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
5 June 2026
Cherry plays Gary, a hapless, low-key type of guy who goes on a blind date, to avenge infidelity in his jaded long-term relationship, with the much younger, devil-may-care Ell, played by Borat breakout Maria Bakalova.
—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
4 June 2026
But Faris and Hall, whose hapless BFFs Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks had by then become its A-list faces, continued with Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 alone.
—
Entertainment Weekly,
2 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for hapless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hapless
Adjective
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The visible gap for the door mechanism running across the rear fenders is unfortunate, especially since more basic minivans showcase clean surfaces there.
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Here's Sophie Cunningham dominating another pre-game entrance before an unfortunate loss to Angel Reese last night.
Adjective
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Isdin Melatonik If traditional retinoids have left your sensitive skin unhappy, Isdin's Melatonik Recovery Night Serum offers a gentler approach with bakuchiol.
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Brown and the Celtics have both since denied speculation that the 29-year-old second-team All-NBA selection was unhappy with his role in Boston.
Adjective
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The one in which his tiny team of negotiators surrendered to the radicals ruling that luckless nation.
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Any one of those locations could have allowed the heat of reentry to burn through the aluminum alloy walls of the spacecraft, killing any luckless crew that may have been inside, in much the kind of reentry breakup that doomed the shuttle Columbia and its seven-person crew in 2003.
Adjective
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Labour has teetered on the edge of one for weeks after those disastrous local election results, and only Burnham’s inability to run before now seems to have delayed one.
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On Monday night, David Remnick interviewed Hillary Rodham Clinton for a live taping of The New Yorker Radio Hour, where the former First Lady spoke plainly about Joe Biden and the disastrous 2024 election.
Cite this Entry
“Hapless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hapless. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
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