useless eater

noun

In the ideology of Nazi Germany, a person with a serious medical problem or disability, seen as requiring assistance from society but offering nothing in return.

OriginGerman unnützer Esser →
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Meanings

nounuseless eater (plural useless eaters)

plural useless eaters

  1. NazismIn the ideology of Nazi Germany, a person with a serious medical problem or disability, seen as requiring assistance from society but offering nothing in return.

    Gerhard Kretschmar seemed perfectly to fit Hitler's idea of a “useless eater,” and when the KdF men informed him of the case, he leapt into action, summoning his personal physician, Karl Brandt, and ordering him to travel immediately to Leipzig to investigate.

    2021, Charlie English, The Gallery of Miracles and Madness: Insanity, Modernism, and Hitler's War on Art, Random House, →ISBN, page 174

Origin

  1. Germanunnützer Esser
  2. Englishuseless eater

Calque of German unnützer Esser.

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

useless eater. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/useless%20eater

MLA

“useless eater.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/useless%20eater. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “useless eater,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/useless%20eater.

Source: useless eater on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.