Meanings
plural lack-alls · alternative lackall
- One who has nothing; a destitute person.
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.
1886, William Graham, The Social Problem, page 71 more example
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?
1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The Present Time”, in Latter-Day PamphletsSynonyms: pauper
Synonyms & antonyms
nounOne who has nothing; a destitute person.
Origin
Cite this entry
lack-all. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lack-all
“lack-all.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lack-all. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lack-all,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lack-all.
Source: lack-all on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.