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—
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Simon Schama
fecklessly
adverb
fecklessness
noun
Did you know?
A feckless person is lacking in feck. And what, you may ask, is feck? In Scots—our source of feckless—feck means "majority" or "effect." The term is ultimately an alteration of the Middle English effect. So something without feck is without effect, i.e., ineffective. In the past, feckful (meaning "efficient, effective," "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 proven, well, feckless.
Synonyms
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 on the Web
As in Bosnia, if the West did not act, then both NATO and the European Union would appear feckless and thus diminished as security institutions with a valid role in the post-Cold War era.
—Robert E. Hunter, Foreign Affairs, 16 Mar. 2011
Declan’s feckless wife, Maud (Victoria Smurfit); his angelic elder daughter, Taggie (Bella Maclean); and his younger daughter, Caitlin (Catriona Chandler), all immediately fall for Rupert, whose ancestral manor house is located just a couple of fields away.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2024
But in other areas of its citizens’ lives the Italian state is curiously feckless.
—D. T. Max, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024
Overwhelmed by her inability to transmute the complexities of her mulatto identity into literature, Jane, broke and burned out, tries to game a feckless entertainment industry that turns racial representation into prestige streaming bait, at least until the heat wears off and flames out.
—Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for feckless 
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Robert E. Hunter, Foreign Affairs, 16 Mar. 2011
Declan’s feckless wife, Maud (Victoria Smurfit); his angelic elder daughter, Taggie (Bella Maclean); and his younger daughter, Caitlin (Catriona Chandler), all immediately fall for Rupert, whose ancestral manor house is located just a couple of fields away.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2024
But in other areas of its citizens’ lives the Italian state is curiously feckless.
—D. T. Max, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024
Overwhelmed by her inability to transmute the complexities of her mulatto identity into literature, Jane, broke and burned out, tries to game a feckless entertainment industry that turns racial representation into prestige streaming bait, at least until the heat wears off and flames out.
—Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for feckless
Dictionary Entries Near feckless
Cite this Entry
“Feckless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feckless. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.
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