How to Use hapless in a Sentence

hapless

adjective
  • She plays the hapless heroine who is unlucky in love.
  • For their part, the bad guys run a gamut from hapless to pure evil.
    — The Economist, 4 July 2019
  • There was a pair of chatty fish, too, and a hapless couple in a tiny dinghy.
    — David Lyman, Cincinnati.com, 5 July 2018
  • Gulls and boobies darted down to gorge on the hapless creatures.
    — Erin Florio, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 Nov. 2024
  • Her wealth of knowledge vaults her ahead of the hapless employees.
    — Sandra Upson, WIRED, 11 June 2018
  • Japan scored twice in each half and kept a hapless Tunisia down to a shot apiece either side of the break.
    — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 24 June 2026
  • But this isn’t a column about a hapless husband who falls apart when he’s left to his own devices.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2022
  • Better to be miles above the ground for longer, than stuck hapless in a stuffy cabin, unable to take off.
    — Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 15 Oct. 2024
  • Or does the breath of the chill foreshadow a grim fate for our engaging, if hapless, hero?
    — Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2025
  • What the hapless Kafka-esque hero is accused of, no one knows, and no one cares.
    — Charlie Fink, Forbes, 17 June 2021
  • His absence was part of why the Leafs looked hapless in their own zone against the Bruins.
    — Joshua Kloke, The Athletic, 26 Feb. 2025
  • On this, as well as other issues, his government is hapless.
    — Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Meanwhile, Beau’s hapless lawyer is thrown from his balcony and smashed against the rocks below.
    — Vulture, 13 June 2023
  • The next week, against hapless Northwestern, the Hoosiers roll.
    — Zach Osterman, Indianapolis Star, 1 Jan. 2020
  • The final scene in this dramatic play is the joint plunge to the surface to capture the hapless fish.
    — Maya Wei-Haas, Smithsonian, 9 Oct. 2017
  • The hapless Qataris were reduced to nine players because of red cards in the chaotic match.
    — Mark Hodge, NBC news, 19 June 2026
  • The dizzying pacing, the litany of hapless jokes, the all-out slapstick and the familiar shtick.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2024
  • Just ask the Packers, who got dumped by the winless, hapless Browns last weekend.
    — Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 25 Sep. 2025
  • Thanks to the band, no one heard the moans—and everyone but the hapless patient assumed the treatment didn’t hurt a bit.
    — Erin Blakemore, Longreads, 19 May 2017
  • While lying bloodied in the middle of the ring, a hapless Rhodes was slapped by Scott in the face.
    — Michael Saponara, Billboard, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Now the Patriots will play what appears to be a hapless Dolphins crew.
    — Gladys Louise Tyler, Forbes.com, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Stranger Things Season 4 brought love, loss, and gore for our hapless Hawkins heroes.
    — Milan Polk, Men's Health, 7 July 2022
  • The problem for the hapless Rockies was that the Reds hit three homers to the Rockies’ two.
    — Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 26 Apr. 2025
  • Bargatze likes to be the butt of the joke, casting himself as the hapless but well-meaning dad who can barely keep track of his day-to-day needs.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 5 June 2026
  • Rooting for a hapless team for nearly two decades teaches you to find pleasures beyond victory.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 13 May 2026
  • Forty years after Spinal Tap, history’s most hapless band turns it up to 11 one last time.
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 12 Sep. 2025
  • The Dolphins have hit the soft midsection of their schedule, and the hapless Jets roll into town.
    — Keven Lerner, sun-sentinel.com, 15 Oct. 2020
  • What if the Bengals lose Sunday in Jersey to the hapless Jets?
    — Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 26 Oct. 2021
  • That’s what a loss to the hapless Washington Football Team will do to a fanbase.
    — John Owning, Dallas News, 27 Oct. 2020
  • The Texans will say good riddance to 2017 with a winnable game against the even more hapless Colts.
    — Randy Harvey, Houston Chronicle, 29 Dec. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hapless.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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