no-account

American  

[noh-uh-kount] / ˈnoʊ əˌkaʊnt /

adjective

1. worthless; good-for-nothing; trifling.

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noun

1. a worthless person; good-for-nothing.

no-account British  

adjective

1. worthless; good-for-nothing

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noun

1. a worthless person

Etymology

Origin of no-account

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45

Example Sentences

She’d written hundreds of scripts by the time she published this still-useful how-to book, allegedly with her no-account husband.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2023

Jeff Bridges was probably the only possible casting as the no-account “Rooster” Cogburn, with Hailee Steinfeld as his employer, the 14-year-old Mattie Ross.

From The Guardian • Sep. 7, 2018

By early 2014, IS - which he and other fighters once mocked as a no-account outfit with paltry numbers - had driven rebel factions out of Raqqa.

From BBC • May 3, 2018

If you believe the lore, Nashville hot chicken was basically a crime of passion, created as a blistering rebuke to a no-account Romeo who couldn’t keep his hands off other women.

From Washington Post • Apr. 2, 2015

And by noon, many citizens engaged in various local enterprises were talking excitedly to each other about how feisty little Joe Mondragon had gone and diverted the water illegally into his parents’ no-account beanfield.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols