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
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.
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
Tensions between them flare, as does frustration with their feckless brother, Branwell.
—Alida Becker, New York Times, 30 May 2025
Hideko Takamine stars as Fumiko, a poor young woman who does manual labor and works as a bar hostess while writing poetry and prose that confront her struggle to survive alongside the feckless and brutal men in her life.
—Hilton Als, New Yorker, 16 May 2025
To date, Governor Moore’s public statements concerning MPRP have been feckless, at best.
—Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 29 May 2025
The regime has no fear of a Congress led by feckless Republicans and a bench that has no enforcement authority.
—Chicago Tribune, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for feckless
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Alida Becker, New York Times, 30 May 2025
Hideko Takamine stars as Fumiko, a poor young woman who does manual labor and works as a bar hostess while writing poetry and prose that confront her struggle to survive alongside the feckless and brutal men in her life.
—Hilton Als, New Yorker, 16 May 2025
To date, Governor Moore’s public statements concerning MPRP have been feckless, at best.
—Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 29 May 2025
The regime has no fear of a Congress led by feckless Republicans and a bench that has no enforcement authority.
—Chicago Tribune, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for feckless
Cite this Entry
“Feckless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feckless. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.
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