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shiftlessness

[shift-lis]

adjective

lacking in resourcefulness; inefficient; lazy.

lacking in incentive, ambition, or aspiration.

Origin:
1555–65; shift + -less

Related forms

shift·less·ly, adverb

shift·less·ness, noun

Synonyms
1. slothful, careless, indolent.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Shiftlessness is always a great word to know.

So is slumgullion. Does it mean:

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

shiftless (ˈʃɪftlɪs)

—*adj*
	lacking in ambition or initiative

'shiftlessly

—*adv*

'shiftlessness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Matching Quote

"I confess I was surprised to find that so many men spent their whole day, ay, their whole lives almost, a-fishing. It is remarkable what a serious business men make of getting their dinners, and how universally shiftlessness and a groveling taste take refuge in a merely ant-like industry. Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant. Of course, viewed from the shore, our pursuits in the country appear not a whit less frivolous."

-Henry David Thoreau

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