noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An individual who has never achieved anything (in a particular field); one who has had an unsuccessful career. derogatory, informal

Synonyms

All synonyms

failurenever-wasnonentity

Etymology

A respelling of never + was + -er. Compare has-been.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.