do-little
noun1
Colloquial Someone who does, performs or achieves little
- Great talkers are commonly do-littles.1655, John Richardson, Choice Observations and Explanations of the Old Testament […] :
- "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."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:
2 more examples
- 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.1837, Sarah M. Grimké, letter to her sister:
- 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.1951, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, s:The Tree's Wife:
- Related terms
- do-nothing