thankless

adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,234 of 15,258leans spoken

Thankless means bringing no gratitude however well it is done. Notice it only when it goes wrong.

The classic phrase is a thankless task, and it usually describes work that keeps everything running and is invisible when it works, which covers a great deal of administration, cleaning and parenting. The word describes the situation rather than the people, so calling a job thankless is not accusing anybody. It is one of the most sympathetic words in English, because saying it to somebody acknowledges exactly the thing nobody else has.

Definitions of thankless

1adjectivethanklessReceiving no thanks or appreciation, however well done.C1
“Chairing that committee is a thankless task.”

Where it comes from

Middle English
thankles
English, today
thankless

From Middle English thankles, equivalent to thank + -less.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 38 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

thankless in the wild

When taking on the transport portfolio, he was informed by Lee Kuan Yew that this was a "thankless job" but that "someone has to do it".
Raymond Lim
Speaking in the imperative mood throughout, he commands his soul to go "upon a thankless errand" and tell various people and organizations of their misdeeds and wrongdoings.
The Lie (poem)
Pius declared: O stony-hearted and thankless Christians! who can hear of all these things, and yet not wish to die for Him Who died for you.
Ezechielis prophetae

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

thank

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