- 1遊手好閒、一事無成的人
A ne'er-do-well is a person who never seems to do well: lazy, unreliable, or always in a bit of trouble, and not making a decent life. It comes from the phrase never do well, with never contracted to ne'er. You can use it as a noun (he is a ne'er-do-well) and sometimes as an adjective (a ne'er-do-well uncle). It is a slightly old, story-like word — novels, colourful newspapers, someone talking with a raised — not everyday office English. It is , but not the fiercest insult; it often sounds more disappointed, or even a little fond, than furious. Though actually, you will also see never-do-well with never written in full; that expanded form is sometimes used in the northeastern United States.
組成From the phrase never do well. Ne'er is a contraction of never; the whole thing is a contracted compound. Never-do-well, with never written in full, is sometimes used as a looser expanded form, often linked to the northeastern United States.
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
ne'er-do-wellnoun/ˈnɛə.duˌwɛl/
- 1
A person without a means of support; an idle, worthless person; a loafer; a person who is ineffectual, unsuccessful, or completely lacking in merit; a good-for-nothing.
- So they have trooped forth to organize village down-and-outs and ne'er-do-wells into would-be combat units.
- Clara's father, a trollish ne'er-do-well who spent most of his time in brothels and saloons, would disappear for days and weeks at a stretch, leaving Clara and her mother to fend for themselves.
- 2
A person who is up to no good; a rogue.
ne'er-do-welladj/ˈnɛə.duˌwɛl/
- 1
Showing the characteristics of a ne'er-do-well: indolent, worthless, or roguish.
- The brother who sought me out and would have redeemed me from the power of darkness, but he couldn't; and has robbed himself of joy and comfort in life to keep his ne'er-do-well brother from starvation; who has paid his debts over and taken him out of jail again and again....
- Before the 1850s, when women figured most prominently in textile employment, the reasons that caused women to seek paid labor—a ne'er-do-well husband, economic distress of the natal family, or a belief that factory work was a road to self-betterment—often precluded their considering an away-from-home cure.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。