inefficient
adjective
- ineffective, wasteful of time and effort
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˌɪn.ɪˈfɪʃ.ənt/
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- English efficient English inefficient From in- + efficient.
- Not efficient; not producing the effect intended or desired; inefficacious.
“Celery is an inefficient food.”
- Incapable of, or indisposed to, effective action; habitually slack or unproductive; effecting little or nothing.
“inefficient workers”
“an inefficient administrator”
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in-bor. Middle English in- English in- English efficient English inefficient From in- + efficient.
- A person who cannot or does not work efficiently.
“Two men were put to work who could not set their looms; a third man was taken on who helped the inefficients to set the looms. The other weavers thought this was a breach of their union rules and 18 of them struck […]”
“A general shaking up of the workers from top to bottom would result; and when equilibrium had been restored, the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the Abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands.”