| 释义 |
ne'er-do-well, n. and a.
Also north. and Sc. -weel.
[Cf. ne'er adv. 3 b.
The word being of northern and Sc. origin, the form -weel is freq. employed even by southern writers.]
A. n. One who never does, and is never likely to do, well; a good-for-nothing, worthless, disreputable person.
1737Ramsay Sc. Prov. (1750) 87 Some ha'e a hantla fauts, ye are only a ne'er-do-well. 1837Dickens Pickw. xlviii, Only some drunken ne'er-do-weel finding his way home. 1845Alb. Smith Fort. Scatterg. Fam. v, I went to sea,—the refuge of all the ne'er-do-wells. 1893Leland Mem. II. 76 A literary ne'er-do-weel, destined never to achieve fortune.
B. adj. Never doing any good; good-for-nothing, worthless.
a1773Fergusson Hallow Fair Wks. (1800) 109 Ne'er-do-weel horse coupers. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, Our auld ne'er-do-weel deevil's-buckie o' a mither. 1857Mrs. Gaskell C. Brontë ii. I. 17 One of those ne'er-do-well lads who seem to have a kind of magnetic power for misfortunes. 1872J. C. Jeaffreson Brides & Bridals I. ix. 132 A saucy, tippling, ne'er-do-well fellow.
Hence ne'er-do-wellish a.; ne'er-do-wellism.
1890J. Middlemass Two False Moves I. xiii. 199 Only the rowdyish and ne'er-do-weelish. 1891Pall Mall G. 5 Aug. 3/1 Drunkenness, ne'er-do-wellism [etc.]. |