noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A chronically unlucky person. US, colloquial

   "I must have pressed two buttons at once, he decided; jammed the works and got this schlimazl’s eye view of reality."

2. 2
   (Yiddish) a very unlucky or inept person who fails at everything wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

hardcaselosersad sackschlemielshlimazelunfortunate

Example

More examples

"I must have pressed two buttons at once, he decided; jammed the works and got this schlimazl’s eye view of reality."

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish שלימזל (shlimazl), from Middle High German slim (“crooked”) and Hebrew מזל (mazzāl, “luck”)

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