as in unsuccessful
not producing the desired result
a well-intentioned but feckless response to the rise in school violence
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Recent Examples of feckless
As head coach, Conte was responsible for motivating his supposedly feckless players.
—
Dan Kilpatrick, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2026
Kelly, clearly, will keep standing up to these feckless attempts at coercion.
—Chris Brennan, USA Today, 8 Jan. 2026
The implication was that the woke media wants to protect criminal immigrants and feckless liberal politicians, most notably Walz, who supposedly let all this take place.
—Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2026
Blaine is not quite as feckless, but Sherman has an ace in the hole in Garfield, who agrees to endorse him in a speech.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for feckless
Dan Kilpatrick, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2026
Kelly, clearly, will keep standing up to these feckless attempts at coercion.
—Chris Brennan, USA Today, 8 Jan. 2026
The implication was that the woke media wants to protect criminal immigrants and feckless liberal politicians, most notably Walz, who supposedly let all this take place.
—Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2026
Blaine is not quite as feckless, but Sherman has an ace in the hole in Garfield, who agrees to endorse him in a speech.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for feckless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for feckless
Adjective
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Bailey’s largest individual donor was northwest suburban business owner Gary Rabine, who was also an unsuccessful rival for the nomination four years ago.—
Rick Pearson,
Chicago Tribune,
16 Apr. 2026
-
Garth points to the stress of unsuccessful in-vitro fertilization (IVF).—
Ralphie Aversa,
USA Today,
16 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Aaron Gordon was predictably formidable as the primary matchup on Julius Randle, who never established a groove while scoring an inefficient 16 points.—
Bennett Durando,
Denver Post,
19 Apr. 2026
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LeBron James had 19 points and 13 assists, and Ayton had 19 points and 11 rebounds while helping keep two-time All-Star Alperen Sengun to 19 points on inefficient six-for-19 shooting.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
19 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Others get more personal, as when Anushka (Meaghan Rath), the ineffectual chief ethicist at a Google-like giant, and her oddball inventor husband, Martin (Simon Helberg), butt heads over her skepticism of his work.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
10 Apr. 2026
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That organization still exists (and its leaders attended the London meeting), but many of the original participants dropped out of it because of differences over tactics and strategy, and the group that remains is small and ineffectual.—
Arash Azizi,
The Atlantic,
4 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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The departure of Matt Roy was hedged somewhat by the signing of Joel Edmundson two summers ago, but replacing Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence with Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci while Drew Doughty, 36 and in his 18th season, grays and frays has proven highly counterproductive.—
Andrew Knoll,
Daily News,
18 Apr. 2026
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These are all inexcusable and counterproductive acts of violence.—
Kyle Chayka,
New Yorker,
15 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Feckless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/feckless. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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