feckless

adjective feck·less \ ˈfek-ləs \

Updated on: 12 May 2018

1 : weak, ineffective

She can't rely on her feckless son.

2 : worthless, irresponsible

a feckless maneuver that could only serve to strengthen the enemy
—Simon Schama

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fecklessly

adverb

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fecklessness

noun

See feckless defined for English-language learners

feckless was our Word of the Day on 03/14/2009. Hear the podcast!

Examples of feckless in a Sentence

She can't rely on her feckless son.
a well-intentioned but feckless response to the rise in school violence

Recent Examples of feckless from the Web

For all these candidates, violating the law and attracting the opprobrium of the liberal elites or feckless party leaders proves their merit.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "Oliver North and the Creation of Donald Trump," 7 May 2018
But while the deal's most vocal opponents see it as a feckless pact with the great malign power of the Middle East, other analysts point to the complexity of the situation within Iran itself.

— ishaan tharoor, Washington Post, "American and Iranian hard-liners await the end of the nuclear deal," 4 May 2018
Chad Shelton’s energetic and vocally assured performance as the feckless Roman proconsul comes closest to breaking through Monastyrska’s august demeanor.

— eric skelly, Houston Chronicle, "Review: HGO’s ‘Norma’ is grand, but lead can’t ‘Let It Go’," 1 May 2018
Paypal, Deutsche Bank, Adidas, and other companies that boycotted the state had to respond to a national constituency; North Carolina’s feckless senators and representatives did not.

— adam winkler, The New Republic, "Why big business is suddenly into liberal politics," 30 Apr. 2018
The Justice Department in the final days of the Obama administration last year concluded the city’s police department was beset by widespread racial bias, poor training and feckless oversight of officers accused of misconduct.

— aamer madhani, USA TODAY, "Chicago police report fewer officer-involved shootings, citizen complaints," 20 Apr. 2018
Yes, and in some cases these supposedly back lash that elicits this feckless response from corporations that just don't want any bad publicity sometimes constitutes a couple tweets, right?

— Fox News, "Laura Ingraham announces new segment 'Defending the First'," 14 Apr. 2018
Most of the action revolves around the ruthless, patriarchal town notary (Peter Rudolf, very good), who is preparing for his feckless son’s wedding.

— david lewis, kansascity, "In powerful ‘1945’, a town confronts its wartime guilt | The Kansas City Star," 5 Apr. 2018
But the problem in Syria is that each time Assad is accused of using chemical weapons, Trump has to raise the stakes with a bigger show of force or risk looking feckless.

— greg jaffe, Washington Post, "Trump tries to appear strong in Syria even as he plans to withdraw," 14 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'feckless.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Someone feckless is lacking in feck. And what, you may ask, is feck? Feck is a Scots term that means "effect" or "majority" and comes from an alteration of the Middle English effect. So something without feck is without effect, or ineffective. In the past, feckful (meaning "efficient," "sturdy," or "powerful") made an occasional appearance. But in this case, the weak has outlived the strong: feckless is a commonly used English word, but feckful has fallen out of use.