English Dictionary

SHIFTLESSNESS

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

 Dictionary entry overview: What does shiftlessness mean? 

SHIFTLESSNESS (noun)
  The noun SHIFTLESSNESS has 1 sense:

1. a failure to be active as a consequence of lack of initiative or ambitionplay

  Familiarity information: SHIFTLESSNESS used as a noun is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


SHIFTLESSNESS (noun)


Sense 1

Meaning:

A failure to be active as a consequence of lack of initiative or ambition

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("shiftlessness" is a kind of...):

indolence; laziness (inactivity resulting from a dislike of work)

Derivation:

shiftless (lacking or characterized by lack of ambition or initiative; lazy)


 Context examples 


"I told that boy about the ice." Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. "These people! You have to keep after them all the time."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Honesty is the best policy." (English proverb)

"Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant." (Native American proverb, Kiowa)

"On this world there exists no such impossible tasks, they fear only those with perseverance." (Chinese proverb)

"Every guest is welcome for three days." (Croatian proverb)



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