lack-all

See also: lackall

English

Alternative forms

• lackall

Etymology

lack +‎ -all

Noun

lack-all (plural lack-alls)

1. One who has nothing; a destitute person.
   • 1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The Present Time”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets:

     To these outcast soldiers of his, unregimented roving banditti for the present, or unworking workhouse prisoners who are almost uglier than banditti; to these floods of Irish Beggars, Able-bodied Paupers, and nomadic Lackalls, now stagnating or roaming everywhere, drowning the face of the world (too truly) into an untenantable swamp and Stygian quagmire, has the Chief Governor of this country no word whatever to say?

   • 1886, William Graham, The Social Problem‎^[1], page 7:

     Thus feel both the labourers and the lack-alls who do not labour, and partly both have a just grievance and a true quarrel against society.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:pauper

Derived terms

• lackallism