The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ne'er-do-well \Ne'er"-do-well`\, n. A person who never does, or fares, well; a good for nothing.
The idle and dissolute ne'er-do-wells of their
communities.
--Harper's
Mag.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"one who is good for nothing," 1737, Scottish and northern English dialect, from contraction of phrase never do well. The adjective is first recorded 1773.
Wiktionary
alt. 1 A person without a means of support; an idle, worthless person; a loafer; a person who is ineffectual, unsuccessful, or completely lacking in merit; a good-for-nothing. 2 A person who is up to no good; a rogue. n. 1 A person without a means of support; an idle, worthless person; a loafer; a person who is ineffectual, unsuccessful, or completely lacking in merit; a good-for-nothing. 2 A person who is up to no good; a rogue.
WordNet
n. an idle worthless person [syn: goldbrick, goof-off, good-for-nothing, good-for-naught]
Wikipedia
A ne'er-do-well is a rogue, vagrant or vagabond without means of support; a good-for-nothing louse.
Ne'er-do-well may also refer to:
- The Ne'er-do-Weel, an 1878 play by W. S. Gilbert, revived soon afterwards as The Vagabond
- Ne'er Do Wells, a rock band
- The Ne'er-Do-Well, a 1911 novel by Rex Beach, adapted for film several times in the silent era
- The Ne'er-Do-Well (film), silent film directed by Alfred E. Green
Usage examples of "ne'er-do-well".
Perhaps this ne'er-do-well father is to be classed as one of those rough coureurs de bois who, in his ambassadorship from his ancestors to their frontier posterity, forgot the conventions and manners of the ancestral life in the temptations of the open country to a man without a slave.
The book was by Charlie Siringo, a kind of ne'er-do-well who had cowboyed a little and rangered a little, while gambling and drinking steadily, at least in the years when Call had been aware of him.
It's this job or none, and so Bullitt uses a common obsession with classic 78-rpm recordings to launch a Trojan Horse friendship with Bobby K's ne'er-do-well brother, Jim.
They came from the world around, the younger sons of fine families, the ne'er-do-wells, the soldiers of fortune, the drifters, the always-broke, the promoters, the con men, the thieves.
Cecil Ackroyd, widow of Ackroyd's ne'er-do-well younger brother, has taken up her residence at Fernley Park, and has succeeded, according to Caroline, in putting Miss Russell in her proper place.
Mrs Cecil Ackroyd, widow of Ackroyd's ne'er-do-well younger brother, has taken up her residence at Fernley Park, and has succeeded, according to Caroline, in putting Miss Russell in her proper place.
Not all the lightmen worried about such things, there being a plethora of young ne'er-do-wells paying city penance to keep the streets clean, but Ben took pride in keeping his beat spif-spaf.
Pickering, and the reasoning is that it is better to try to salvage these ne'er-do-wells, these disgraces to the uniform, and utilize their flying skills, rather than send them to the Portsmouth Naval Prison.
Hanrahan had also heard that Colonel Miner, a strict disciplinarian, was considered just the man to shape up Hanrahan's ragtag army of misfits and ne'er-do-wells and turn them back into decent paratroopers.
For this purpose he calls in the help of a brother, a ne'er-do-well, who has left his native country under a cloud.