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{%type%} Definitions

WordNet 3.0Copyright Princeton University
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n. - A failure to be active as a consequence of lack of initiative or ambition.

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Usage examples (35)
  • And to avoid that horror of the real Yankee's dreams, "shiftlessness," she was to take up a small select school for employment.
  • "Mental shiftlessness" is the cause of many a failure.
  • For one thing, they did not have a monopoly on shiftlessness.
  • This "roving disposition" cannot fairly be charged to shiftlessness.
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The Open Dictionary of English is a collaborative project, based on Open Source materials, LearnThat resources, and partner APIs.
We give special thanks to our LearnThat volunteers, as well as Princeton University and Wiktionary for their Open Source word data. We're also grateful for the support given by Google, Wordnik.com, Dictionary.com, Stands4.com and YouTube, OEDILF.com, Kylescholz.com, Best-Practice.com, Forvo.com, as well as the generous Creative Commons community.