do-little

English

Noun

do-little (plural do-littles)

  1. (colloquial) Someone who does, performs or achieves little
    Synonym: layabout
    • 1655, John Richardson, Choice Observations and Explanations of the Old Testament […] :
      Great talkers are commonly do-littles.
    • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
      "Is that all I am good for now? I was good for mair than that in the great fight between our folk and Patrico Salmon's; if I had not helped you with these very fambles, (holding up her hands) Jean Baillie would have frummagem'd you, ye feckless do-little."
    • 1837, Sarah M. Grimké, letter to her sister:
      I know an instance of a woman, who by labor and economy had scraped together a little maintenance for herself and a do-little husband, who was left, at his death, by virtue of his last will and testament, to be supported by charity.
    • 1951, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, s:The Tree's Wife:
      Joe Ed was a stocky blond boy who could play a guitar and shoot the eye out of a possum at fifty yards—but not much else. What astonished everyone was Florella’s regard for such a do-little, since she was halfway promised to a boy from Owl’s Hollow.

References

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