a. Also 7 fectless. Originally Sc. and north. dial., but now not infrequent in literary use. [f. as prec. + -LESS.] Of things: Ineffective, feeble, futile, valueless. Of persons, their actions and attributes: Destitute of vigour, energy, or capacity; weak, helpless.
1599. James I., Βασιλικον Δωρον (1682), 33. A fecklesse arrogant conceit of their greatnes and power.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Sonnet xix.
| Alace! my Lords, hou long will ze delay | |
| To put the PoetÆs pensione out of plie? | |
| Zon shifting sophists hes no thing to say; | |
| Their feckles flyting is not worth a flie. |
1619. Z. Boyd, Last Battell (1629), 242. My Faith is both faint and fectlesse, nothing but a smoke of Faith.
1632. Rutherford, Lett., xxiii. (1863), I. 91. Let others take their silly, feckless heaven in this life.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Hallow-fair, Poet. Wks. (1845), 15.
| Wi’ that he gat anither straik | |
| Mair weighty than before, | |
| That gart his feckless body aik, | |
| And spew the reekin gore. |
1823. Carlyle, Early Lett., II. 252. I am so feckless at present that I have never yet had the heart to commence it.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., xxxvii. I’m a poor black feckless sheep—childer may clem for aught I can do.
1869. Trollope, He Knew, vii. (1878), 41. They’re feckless, idle young ladies.
Hence Fecklessly adv., in a feckless manner; Fecklessness, the state of being feckless; want of energy, feebleness.
1862. T. A. Trollope, Marietta, II. iv. 71. Lamely, fecklessly, incapably.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., clviii. (1863), I. 362. Love overlooketh blackness and fecklessness; for if it had not been so, Christ would never have made so fair and blessed a bargain with us as the covenant of grace is.
1893. Athenæum, 21 Jan., 82/3. Great general fecklessness and want of resource in not trying to save the ship after she took the ground.
