Nogoodnik
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A ne'er-do-well; a person who is no good. US, derogatory, slang
"Then at the last minute Harris was brought aboard as Dr. Zachary Smith, initially an authentic, lip-curling nogoodnik who, it was presently discovered, could be better used for laughs played off Mumy and a sober-sided robot (“You bubbleheaded booby,” sneers Harris. “That does not compute,” returns the robot dryly)."
Example
More examples"Then at the last minute Harris was brought aboard as Dr. Zachary Smith, initially an authentic, lip-curling nogoodnik who, it was presently discovered, could be better used for laughs played off Mumy and a sober-sided robot (“You bubbleheaded booby,” sneers Harris. “That does not compute,” returns the robot dryly)."
Etymology
Phono-semantic matching of Russian негодник (negodnik, “worthless person, reprobate, ne'er-do-well”) By surface analysis, no good + -nik.
Related phrases
More for "nogoodnik"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.