Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Luckless; unfortunate. See Synonyms at unfortunate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy.
- Synonyms Ill-starred, ill-fated, forlorn.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. deserving or inciting pity
Etymologies
- hap + -less (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Back before they were Super Bowl champs, some called the hapless team the "Aints" and in shame would pull paper bags over their heads.”
“Chapter 62 consists of a single word, "hapless" - the only word Orion's abridger cut from the chapter, trimming a 105-word sentence to 104; the book's first sentence is "methodically"; the final hunt for the white whale dissolves into pure punctuation.”
“Like her and many others of our generation, I knew all the old gang pretty well but have met only a handful of today's lot, Maginnes, the Attwoods, Hanna, Dallat, Ritchie, McGrady, McDonnell and yes the "hapless" - (unkind and overstated) - Durkan.”
“The highlight of her reign of terror: The now-infamous "Saving Private Ryan" interpretive dance, part of a longer sequence, assembled to celebrate nominated film scores, which The Post's reviewer described as a "hapless, protracted gaffe.”
The Washington Post: Lists: The Academy Awards' worst-ever musical numbers
“Should we call the hapless storyteller an anecdope?”
“The government – that is, the hapless FDIC – puts up 85 per cent of $5 million to buy this – namely, $4,250,000.”
“They also miss that it isn't "just like" their partisan foes calling the hapless Dubya "Chimpy McHitlerBurton".”
“From ‘cowboy up’ to ‘lawyer up,’ Bush is a man for whom the word hapless is effusive praise.”
“Hats off to the keeper I may or may not have described as "hapless" at some time in print during the last few weeks.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Still, at least uni-boy (otherwise known as my hapless brother) made me look better by sending a measly Mother's Day text.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hapless’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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-more or -less
Words ending with *more or *less, more or less. Many of theses terms also appear on the list The -less Said, which see.
schemaless, unless, useless, guileless, wireless, regardless, homeless, endless, nevertheless, countless, jobless, doubtless and 434 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1847 more...
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jan_21
magoosh listens
infuriating, galvanize, sporadic, imperciptible, shirk, protean, versatile, auspicious, clairvoyance, nary, predilection, inkling and 63 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, replete, steeped, eminent, perceive, intrepid, compound, automaton, reticent, interminable, drudgery and 288 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hapless.
myth17 Olymic is a mockery of hapless players. Aug 4, 2012