hapless adj : deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life" [syn: miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, wretched]

English

Pronunciation

Adjective

1. Very unlucky; ill-fated.

   Poor hapless Andy was the only one who fell in the well.

Derived terms

• haplessly
• haplessness

Translations

badly off, depressed, dire, donsie, doomful, evil-starred, fatal, fortuneless, funest, ill off, ill-fated, ill-starred, in adverse circumstances, inauspicious, infelicitous, luckless, miserable, ominous, out of luck, planet-struck, sad, short of luck, star-crossed, unblessed, underprivileged, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, unprosperous, unprovidential, untoward, woeful, wretched