CEFR C1

ne'er-do-well

noun

Meaning

ne'er-do-well means a person without a means of support; an idle, worthless person; a loafer; a person who is ineffectual, unsuccessful, or completely.... It can have more than one sense, so use the alternate meanings and examples to choose the meaning that matches your sentence.

Examples

The article uses ne'er-do-well to mean a person without a means of support; an idle, worthless person; a loafer; a....
The teacher asked students to find ne'er-do-well in the reading.

Synonyms: good-for-nothing, nogoodnik, vagabond

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ne'er-do-well (C1)

noun

Pronunciation: /ˈnɛə.duˌwɛl/

Definition

ne'er-do-well means a person without a means of support; an idle, worthless person; a loafer; a person who is ineffectual, unsuccessful, or completely.... It can have more than one sense, so use the alternate meanings and examples to choose the meaning that matches your sentence.

Examples

The article uses ne'er-do-well to mean a person without a means of support; an idle, worthless person; a loafer; a....
The teacher asked students to find ne'er-do-well in the reading.
Check the words around ne'er-do-well to choose the right meaning.

How to Use ne'er-do-well

a/the ne'er-do-well (noun pattern): Use an article when the noun is countable in context. — "The article mentioned a ne'er-do-well."
ne'er-do-well in context (usage pattern): Use surrounding words to choose the correct sense. — "We checked ne'er-do-well in context before translating it."

Synonyms of ne'er-do-well

Words with a similar meaning to ne'er-do-well:

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