feckless

From Scots feckless,[1] variant of Scots fectless (“ineffectual”) (an aphetic variant of effectless), equivalent to effect +‎ -less.[2]

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛkləs/, /ˈfɛklɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkləs, -ɛklɪs

feckless (comparative more feckless, superlative most feckless)

1. Lacking purpose.
   • September 10 2005, Canberra Times:

     It is the beauty of great games when they are played at their highest level and the extraordinary thing now is that we do not have to trawl back through all the years of your inexorable progress from feckless beach boy to master sportsman.

2. Without skill, ineffective, incompetent.
3. Lacking the courage to act in any meaningful way.
4. (British, archaic) Lacking vitality.

• (weak, ineffective): futile, hopeless, ineffective, ineffectual, feeble, meaningless, useless
• (worthless, irresponsible): unpurposed, worthless, aimless, careless, reckless, irresponsible

• (antonym(s) of “weak, ineffective”): effective, efficient, meaningful, useful
• (antonym(s) of “worthless, irresponsible”): purposeful, careful, responsible

• fecklessly
• fecklessness

• “feckless”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “feckless”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• fectless (obsolete)

feck (“value”) +‎ -less

feckless (not comparable)

1. ineffective

• “feckless” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.