英和和英

語源

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

発音

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /ˈfɛkləs/, /ˈfɛklɪs/
• 韻: -ɛkləs, -ɛklɪs

形容詞

feckless (comparative more feckless, superlative most feckless)

1. Lacking purpose.
   • 2005 September 10, 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.
   • 1960 March, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Preston—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 201:

     This was the West Lancashire Railway, an ambitious but feckless little concern which, in a life lasting a quarter of a century, never earned a dividend, failed to keep up its debenture payments (despite a dangerous attempt to do so by issuing more debentures) and ended up in the hands of a receiver.

   • 2014 March 24, Adam Reed, “On the Carpet” (4:14 from the start), in Archer‎, season 5, episode 9, spoken by Malory Archer (Jessica Walter):

     “Lana, when I want you to talk, I will tell you. And until then, zip it.” “Wha-- what did I do?” “Nothing.” “Yeah, Lana.” “Which is why these feckless idiots lost 200 kilos of cocaine.” “Yeah, Lan-- oh. OK. Technically. But then we stole a plane loaded with, like, twice as much cocaine.” “Is this the part where you tell me to look under my seat?”

   • 2025 March 20, Cameron Joseph, “Panicked Democratic voters are turning on their own leaders”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎, archived from the original on 30 March 2025:

     Across the country, Democratic voters who have been reeling from Mr. Trump’s sweeping and possibly illegal cuts to government, his head-spinning policy moves, and his politicization of federal law enforcement are growing more and more incensed at their own party’s seemingly feckless response.

3. Lacking the courage to act in any meaningful way.
   • 2026 March 6, Charlie Campbell, quoting Nicholas Burns, “The Iran War Has Distracted and Depleted the U.S. Military. But It May Also Have Saved Taiwan”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 6 March 2026, World‎:

     China is “proving to be a feckless friend for its authoritarian allies,” Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China under President Joe Biden, wrote on X.

4. (British, archaic) Lacking vitality.

同意語

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

反意語

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

関連する語

• fecklessly
• fecklessness

Further reading

• “feckless”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “feckless”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

参照