See shiftless on Wiktionary
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "shiftlessly"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "shiftlessness"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
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"text": "+",
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"expansion": "Etymology tree\nEnglish shift\nProto-Indo-European *lewh₁-\nProto-Indo-European *lewHs-der.\nProto-Germanic *leusaną\nProto-Germanic *lausaz\nProto-Germanic *-lausaz\nProto-West Germanic *-laus\nOld English -lēas\nMiddle English -les\nEnglish -less\nEnglish shiftless\n[Appendix:Glossary#derived_terms|Derived]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"alt\" : \"*lewHs-\", \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"status\" : \"inline\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*lewh₁-\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*leusaną\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*lausaz\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*-lausaz\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-West Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*-laus\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gmw-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"-lēas\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"-les\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"-less\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"is_group\" : true, \"keyword\" : \"affix\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"shiftless\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"shiftless\">\nFrom shift + -less.",
"name": "ety"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nEnglish shift\nProto-Indo-European *lewh₁-\nProto-Indo-European *lewHs-der.\nProto-Germanic *leusaną\nProto-Germanic *lausaz\nProto-Germanic *-lausaz\nProto-West Germanic *-laus\nOld English -lēas\nMiddle English -les\nEnglish -less\nEnglish shiftless\nFrom shift + -less.",
"forms": [
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"form": "more shiftless",
"tags": [
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]
},
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"tags": [
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]
}
],
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{
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{
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"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
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"ref": "1876 July, Henry James, Jr., chapter V, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 87:",
"text": "To expand, without bothering about it—without shiftless timidity on one side, or loquacious eagerness on the other—to the full compass of what he would have called a \"pleasant\" experience, was Newman's most definite programme of life.",
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"ref": "2015, Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction:",
"text": "Decades ago, before credit scores, loan officers could make decisions almost whimsically and your fate could hinge on whether you reminded them of someone, or they had slept poorly the night before, or they harbored stereotypes of \"shiftless blacks\" and \"flighty women.\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
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"Lazy, unmotivated."
],
"id": "en-shiftless-en-adj-sKoZD5J1",
"links": [
[
"Lazy",
"lazy"
],
[
"unmotivated",
"unmotivated#Adjective"
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"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"lang_code": "bg",
"roman": "mǎrzeliv",
"sense": "lazy, unmotivated",
"word": "мързелив"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"lang_code": "ga",
"sense": "lazy, unmotivated",
"word": "gan fónamh"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0 0",
"code": "pdt",
"lang": "Plautdietsch",
"lang_code": "pdt",
"sense": "lazy, unmotivated",
"word": "ful"
}
]
},
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],
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"Untrustworthy as a result of being incompetent at the job."
],
"id": "en-shiftless-en-adj-fDQeYRn6",
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"untrustworthy"
],
[
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],
"glosses": [
"Destitute of shifts or expedients; lacking proper means."
],
"id": "en-shiftless-en-adj-ojVy50sl",
"links": [
[
"Destitute",
"destitute"
],
[
"shifts",
"shift#Noun"
],
[
"expedients",
"expedient#Noun"
],
[
"lacking",
"lack#Verb"
],
[
"proper",
"proper#Adjective"
],
[
"means",
"means#Noun"
]
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}
],
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{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-VGPaleontologist-shiftless.wav",
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"word": "shiftless"
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"categories": [
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"English entries referencing missing etymons",
"English entries with etymology texts",
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"English lemmas",
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"word": "shiftlessness"
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"name": "ety"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Etymology tree\nEnglish shift\nProto-Indo-European *lewh₁-\nProto-Indo-European *lewHs-der.\nProto-Germanic *leusaną\nProto-Germanic *lausaz\nProto-Germanic *-lausaz\nProto-West Germanic *-laus\nOld English -lēas\nMiddle English -les\nEnglish -less\nEnglish shiftless\nFrom shift + -less.",
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"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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"text": "To expand, without bothering about it—without shiftless timidity on one side, or loquacious eagerness on the other—to the full compass of what he would have called a \"pleasant\" experience, was Newman's most definite programme of life.",
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"type": "quotation"
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{
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],
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{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"lang_code": "bg",
"roman": "mǎrzeliv",
"sense": "lazy, unmotivated",
"word": "мързелив"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"lang_code": "ga",
"sense": "lazy, unmotivated",
"word": "gan fónamh"
},
{
"code": "pdt",
"lang": "Plautdietsch",
"lang_code": "pdt",
"sense": "lazy, unmotivated",
"word": "ful"
}
],
"word": "shiftless"
}
Download raw JSONL data for shiftless meaning in All languages combined (5.8kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (e79dea5 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.