- 1倒楣的、不幸的
Hapless means unlucky — the sort of person things keep going wrong for. Writers like it for a character who is always in a mess: the hapless tourist who misses every train. It is a little old-fashioned and a little literary; in everyday talk people more often say unlucky or poor. The hap is an old word for luck, and -less means “without,” so hapless is “without luck.” Though actually, it is not helpless (cannot help yourself) and not unhappy (sad). A hapless person may be able and even cheerful — they just have bad luck. You will meet it in stories and newspapers more than in casual chat.
core核心畫面
組成From about 1400, from hap (“luck”) + -less (“without”).
原始詞典資料4 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。
haplessadj/ˈhæplɪs/
- 1
Especially of a person, unfortunate.
- 2
Very unlucky; ill-fated.
- Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.
- Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
- 3
Very miserable, wretched, unhappy, measly, forlorn.
- 4
Devoid of talent or skill.
- Gideon Defoe scripted from his own series-launching comedic book The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists, about the adventures of a hapless group of pirates known only by names like The Pirate With The Scarf, The Pirate With Gout, and in the case of their leader, The Pirate Captain.
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。