Feckless means useless, and unable to take responsibility. A feckless husband, feckless and idle, feckless in every way.
It is a heavy word and is used most in political complaint about the poor, which is worth knowing before reaching for it. The feck is a Scots form of effect, so feckless means without effect.
1adjectivefecklessUseless, and unable to take responsibility.
“Her feckless son spent all his money and never kept a job for more than a month.”
feckless is a quality.
Scots feckless comes from feck, a form of effect, plus -less.
Scots
feckless
English, today
feckless
From Scots feckless, variant of Scots fectless (“ineffectual”) (an aphetic variant of effectless), equivalent to effect + -less.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA