Definition of feckless
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
fecklessly
adverbfecklessness
nounFrom the M-W Editors
feckless was our Word of the Day on 03/14/2009. Hear the podcast!
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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
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The dialogue can occasionally feel a bit canned, as if lifted from a lesser sitcom, and the author overplays the scenes of his narrator as a feckless, self-loathing alcoholic, endlessly recycling glimpses of him drunk, drying out and drunk again.
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Or, to put it another way, to make folklore out of the feckless.
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More than any other factor, though, the case for a Glass EGG is made by the celebrated couch dance the candidate performs every time some feckless mug artist tries to take his picture.
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.
Origin and Etymology of feckless
Scots, from feck effect, majority, from Middle English (Scots) fek, alteration of Middle English effect
FECKLESS Defined for English Language Learners
feckless
playDefinition of feckless for English Language Learners
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: having or resulting from a weak character or nature
Learn More about feckless
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See words that rhyme with feckless Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for feckless Spanish Central: Translation of feckless Nglish: Translation of feckless for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of feckless for Arabic speakers
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