do-little

plural do-littles

1. colloquialSomeone who does, performs or achieves little

   Great talkers are commonly do-littles.

   1655, John Richardson, Choice Observations and Explanations of the Old Testament […]

   3 more examples

   "Is that all I am good for now? I was good for mair than that in the great fight between our folk and Patrico Salmon's; if I had not helped you with these very fambles, (holding up her hands) Jean Baillie would have frummagem'd you, ye feckless do-little."

   1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC

   I know an instance of a woman, who by labor and economy had scraped together a little maintenance for herself and a do-little husband, who was left, at his death, by virtue of his last will and testament, to be supported by charity.

   1837, Sarah M. Grimké, letter to her sister

   Joe Ed was a stocky blond boy who could play a guitar and shoot the eye out of a possum at fifty yards—but not much else. What astonished everyone was Florella’s regard for such a do-little, since she was halfway promised to a boy from Owl’s Hollow.

   1951, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, s:The Tree's Wife

   Synonyms: layabout