good-for-little

“As for the rest, I guess how it is, and I scorn to bear malice, or tell tales, as much as another; but no thanks to that little jilting devil, Jenny Dennison, who deserves a tight skelping for trying to lead an honest lad into a scrape, just because he was so silly as to like her good-for-little chit face.”

Old Mortality 2004

Unbeknownst to us, the good-for-little had landed himself a position, or so Uncle Augie claimed.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2004

Veale was truly a feckless, good-for-little creature.

The Devil's Garden W. B. Maxwell 1902

"Oh!" replied the stranger, "I'm an odd kind of good-for-little fellow, one day poor, another day rich, but if you wish to know more about me or my habits, come with me and perhaps I may show you more than you would make out if you went alone."

Celtic Fairy Tales Joseph Jacobs 1885

The trisyllables, and the rumblers of syllables more than three, are but the good-for-little magnates.]

Clarissa Harlowe 2006

I guess how it is, and I scorn to bear malice, or tell tales, as much as another; but no thanks to that little jilting devil, Jenny Dennison, who deserves a tight skelping for trying to lead an honest lad into a scrape, just because he was so silly as to like her good-for-little chit face. "

Old Mortality, Volume 1. Walter Scott 1801

I guess how it is, and I scorn to bear malice, or tell tales, as much as another; but no thanks to that little jilting devil, Jenny Dennison, who deserves a tight skelping for trying to lead an honest lad into a scrape, just because he was so silly as to like her good-for-little chit face. "

Old Mortality, Complete Walter Scott 1801