footler

I think we can manage the kind of footler he's been sendin 'over here lately, but if Lensch or some lad like that were to choose to turn up I wouldn't say what might happen.

Mr. Standfast John Buchan 1907

Then there is: "A novelist who simply disregards the major public events of the moment is generally either a footler or a plain idiot."

Such, Such Was Eric Blair Barnes, Julian 2009

(But if I broke it down, I wouldn't be such a footler as to write plays and poems, would you?)

Captivity M. Leonora Eyles 1924

Of course a novelist is not obliged to write directly about contemporary history, but a novelist who simply disregards the major public events of the moment is generally either a footler or a plain idiot.

Collected Essays 1900

"Know, you footler!" growled Smathers, disgustedly.

Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces Thomas W. Hanshew 1885

"Know, you footler!" growled Smathers disgustedly.

Cleek, the Master Detective Thomas W. Hanshew 1885