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
By now, the Syrian opposition, once led by nonviolent protesters, was dominated by Islamists, who were divided and feckless and could be easily lumped together with the telegenic savageries of the Islamic State, known as ISIS.
—Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 6 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
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Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 6 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
Cite this Entry
“Feckless.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feckless. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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