self-helplessadj.
/ˌsɛlfˈhɛlpləs/, U.S. /ˌsɛlfˈhɛlpləs/ Unable to achieve anything or provide for oneself without help from others.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > [adjective] > lacking resourcefulness
unshifty1570
shiftless1584
boss1599
helpless1620
unshiftable1622
self-helpless1634
foisonless1721
feckless1773
resourceless1787
weirdless1821
hopeless1854
fibreless1864
1634 W. Wood New Englands Prospect ii. vii. 72 They..carryed this selfe-helpelesse person on their bare shoulders twelve miles to his residence.
1848 C. Kingsley Yeast in Fraser's Mag. July 115/2 I am miserable, self-disgusted, self-helpless.
1893 Christian Weekly 12 Aug. 127/1 Christ is the Infinite Love, suffering and sacrificing itself to save its lost and self-helpless offspring.
1962 R. B. Fuller Epic Poem on Industrialization 24 Self-helpless old fashioned business Was forced to call in..Professional Trouble-shooters.
2000 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 18 Mar. e1 I was once..a self-helpless, list-making whiner torn between two masters.
Derivatives
self-ˈhelplessness n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > [noun] > lack of resourcefulness
fecklessness1637
shiftlessness1682
helplessness1731
weirdlessness1825
self-helplessness1853
unshiftiness1870
sleevelessness1882
1853 Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper 10 July 9/1 His self-helplessness is put to the severest test at the very outset; but for this there is no present remedy.
1881 Daily News 1 Feb. 3/2 Apathy, or at least what I would call self-helplessness.
2012 W. Self Umbrella 124 The entire Samuel Smiles pride of the place declined into self-helplessness as the war came to it.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1634