luck·less

(lŭk′lĭs)

adj.

Having or marked by a lack of good fortune; unlucky. See Synonyms at unfortunate.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

luckless

(ˈlʌklɪs)

adj

having no luck; unlucky

ˈlucklessly adv

ˈlucklessness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

luck•less

(ˈlʌk lɪs)

adj.

unfortunate; hapless or ill-fated: a luckless venture.

[1555–65]

luck′less•ly, adv.

luck′less•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

luckless - having or bringing misfortune; "Friday the 13th is an unlucky date"

unlucky

unfortunate - not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune; "an unfortunate turn of events"; "an unfortunate decision"; "unfortunate investments"; "an unfortunate night for all concerned"

luckless

adjective unlucky, unfortunate, unsuccessful, hapless, unhappy, disastrous, cursed, hopeless, jinxed, calamitous, ill-starred, star-crossed, unpropitious, ill-fated the luckless parent of an extremely difficult child

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

luckless

adjective

Involving or undergoing chance misfortune:

hapless, ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward.

Translations

سَيِّئ الحَظ

nešťastný

uheldig

unglücklich

malchanceux

peches

óheppinn

sfortunato

forfulgt av uhell

şanssıztalihsiz

不幸的

luckless

[ˈlʌklɪs] ADJ → desdichado, desafortunado

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

luckless

[ˈlʌkləs] adj

[person] → malchanceux/euse

[trip] → marqué(e) par la malchance

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

luckless

adj → glücklos; attempt also → erfolglos

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

luckless

[ˈlʌklɪs] adj (liter) → sfortunato/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

luck

(lak) noun

1. the state of happening by chance. Whether you win or not is just luck – there's no skill involved.

2. something good which happens by chance. She has all the luck!

ˈluckless adjective

unfortunate. luckless children.

ˈlucky adjective

1. having good luck. He was very lucky to escape alive.

2. bringing good luck. a lucky number; a lucky charm.

ˈluckily adverb

ˈluckiness noun

lucky dip

a form of amusement at a fair etc in which prizes are drawn from a container without the taker seeing what he is getting.

bad luck!

an expression of sympathy for someone who has failed or been unlucky.

good luck!

an expression of encouragement made to someone who is about to take part in a competition, sit an exam etc. She wished him good luck.

worse luck!

most unfortunately!. He's allowing me to go, but he's coming too, worse luck!

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

A TURBULENT Person was brought before a Judge to be tried for an assault with intent to commit murder, and it was proved that he had been variously obstreperous without apparent provocation, had affected the peripheries of several luckless fellow-citizens with the trunk of a small tree, and subsequently cleaned out the town.

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One luckless evening it occurred to me to test my wife's fidelity in a vulgar, commonplace way familiar to everyone who has acquaintance with the literature of fact and fiction.

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Aurelia's share of the modest Sawyer property had been put into one thing after another by the handsome and luckless Lorenzo de Medici.

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On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.

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Apart from the one fundamental nastiness the luckless mouse succeeds in creating around it so many other nastinesses in the form of doubts and questions, adds to the one question so many unsettled questions that there inevitably works up around it a sort of fatal brew, a stinking mess, made up of its doubts, emotions, and of the contempt spat upon it by the direct men of action who stand solemnly about it as judges and arbitrators, laughing at it till their healthy sides ache.

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Tell us I intreat you what is become of him?" "Yes, cold and insensible Nymph, (replied I) that luckless swain your Brother, is no more, and you may now glory in being the Heiress of Sir Edward's fortune."

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Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless aeronauts were still falling, and into the lake.

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Denisov never spoke of Rostov's family, but by the tender friendship his commander showed him, Rostov felt that the elder hussar's luckless love for Natasha played a part in strengthening their friendship.

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Perkins, martinet though he was, would hardly, I think, have inflicted such a punishment on Cecily, who was a favourite of his, had he known the real nature of that luckless missive.

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Let Chiron also come and bring many Centaurs -- all that escaped the hands of Heracles and all that were destroyed: let them make sad havoc of the pots and overthrow the kiln, and let the potters see the mischief and be grieved; but I will gloat as I behold their luckless craft.

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Everyone had something to say in censure or ridicule of the luckless Madame Maltishtcheva, and the conversation crackled merrily, like a burning faggot-stack.

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Nothing is truer than that, in this world, the luckless have no right to their opportunities--as if misfortune were a legal disqualification.

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