shiftless

American  

[shift-lis] / ˈʃɪft lɪs /

adjective

1. lacking in resourcefulness; inefficient; lazy.

   Synonyms:

   indolent, careless, slothful

2. lacking in incentive, ambition, or aspiration.

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shiftless British  

/ ˈʃɪftlɪs /

adjective

1. lacking in ambition or initiative

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Other Word Forms

• shiftlessly adverb
• shiftlessness noun

Etymology

Origin of shiftless

First recorded in 1555–65; shift + -less

Explanation

If someone calls you shiftless, it's not a compliment — they're saying that you're lazy and unambitious! Someone who's shiftless avoids hard work at any cost, sometimes through procrastination. Do you hate getting sweaty or feeling tired at the end of a long day of labor? When volunteers are requested, do you slump in your seat instead of raising your hand? If so, you can call yourself shiftless. This adjective comes from a now-uncommon use of the noun shift as "resources." So if you don't have the get-up-and-go — or shift — to do a job, you're shiftless.

Example Sentences

Or the shiftless hack who hated his profession?

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2021

In that classic American tale by Washington Irving published in 1819, an amiable but shiftless farmer strolls out of his colonial village to go hunting in the Catskill Mountains.

From Salon • Jan. 27, 2021

Colm Meaney plays a shiftless guy in late-80s Ireland who is reasonably happy on welfare but has a Damascene conversion to entrepreneurialism.

From The Guardian • Apr. 16, 2020

“The idea of being a writer attracts a good many shiftless people,” Flannery O’Connor wrote with merciless accuracy, “those who are merely burdened with poetic feelings or afflicted with sensibility.”

From Washington Post • Apr. 11, 2016

The harder he worked, the deeper C.P. sank into the very rut that had swallowed his father, even as he watched the less talented and shiftless children of the wealthy prosper.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson