schlemiel

noun

variants also shlemiel
Definition of schlemielnext
as in loser

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of schlemiel Superman was the ultimate hero, but Clark Kent was a schlemiel. — David Mamet, National Review, 3 Mar. 2022 That poor schlemiel completely missed the point that Tim didn’t create the World Wide Web. — Gil Press, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023 Sanderson seems to me like an opportunist with an appetite for attention, or at the very least a schlemiel, possibly a little vain. — Mireille Silcoff, New York Times, 2 May 2023 But Mauser refuses to be just another schlemiel working at a shoestore. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 1 Dec. 2025 This character may be Grade’s most magnificently grotesque creation, half demon, half schlemiel. — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2025 He, the promising artist who died young, and I, the schlemiel who shovels out several hundred dollars a month to the storage company to house his artworks. — Will Stephenson, Harper's Magazine, 16 Aug. 2023 Like Woyzeck himself, Heather Chrisler's Helen hovers between antihero and schlemiel. — Chicago Reader, 23 Aug. 2017 On Instagram, Gellar posted a screencap of her titular Slayer meeting Pascal’s Eddie, a hapless schlemiel who — like Buffy herself — is having trouble adjusting to college life at UC Sunnydale. — Vulture, 1 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for schlemiel
  1. loser
  2. chump
  3. oaf
  4. palooka
  5. lout
  6. turkey
  7. dolt
  8. dullard
Noun
  • The losers are the automakers still leaving accessories to the dealer, where the margin quietly bleeds away.
    — Sarwant Singh, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • That is a big risk investors take when trying to find the winners and losers within the biotech sector.
    — Jay Woods, CNBC, 2 July 2026
Definition of loser
Noun
  • This new three-part docuseries interviews Belfort's former wife, his co-conspirators, and his victims to dive deep into how his boiler room operation pumped, dumped, and ripped off chumps.
    — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 27 June 2026
  • Spielberg didn’t film those terrifying closeups of the shark – like when Jaws pops up as Brody is shoveling the bloody chump slick in the water — until Day 92.
    — Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 22 June 2026
Definition of chump
Noun
  • Star-studded, and then some, the upcoming show boasts giant of stage and screen John Lithgow as Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Golden Globe winner Janet McTeer as stern but wise Professor Minerva McGonagall, and comedy stalwart Nick Frost as gentle oaf Rubeus Hagrid.
    — Charlotte Reck, CNN Money, 26 Mar. 2026
  • And in the 1939 film, the Wizard is a kind of bumbling oaf who has stumbled onto the levers of power (almost literally).
    — Bill Goodykoontz, AZCentral.com, 21 Nov. 2025
Definition of oaf
Noun
  • Don’t be a palooka, start Nacua.
    — Bill Reinhard, New York Daily News, 12 Dec. 2024
  • One year after the Academy bafflingly ignored his work in Sideways, Giamatti finally scored his first Oscar nomination for his purely entertaining performance as boxing manager Joe Gould in Ron Howard’s proudly old-fashioned Depression-era palooka drama.
    — A.A. Dowd, Vulture, 10 Mar. 2024
Definition of palooka
Noun
  • The league’s most popular player has become its biggest lout.
    — Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026
  • Suddenly, these two louts are forced to support themselves for the first time.
    — James Grebey, Vulture, 29 Dec. 2025
Definition of lout
Noun
  • Students can also see goats, chickens and turkeys at the farm, Wieser said.
    — Camryn Dadey, Sacbee.com, 5 July 2026
  • The chain also smokes turkey, pork and sausages on its pits, which run 24 hours a day.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 July 2026
Definition of turkey
Noun
  • So a lot of the counterintelligence training that's given to the troops, the officers, the defense contractors, a lot of it is kind of like, don't be naive, don't be a dolt, in short.
    — Dana Taylor, USA Today, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Most apartment buildings, basic or deluxe, barely qualify as architecture at all, not because they are designed by dolts but because developers (and the zoning code) demand a crushing efficiency.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 28 Jan. 2026
Definition of dolt
Noun
  • Were smokers of the day dullards for falling for this disinformation?
    — Josh Browning, Big Think, 18 Dec. 2024
  • Well, that did not stop this throng of dullards from cheering and clapping.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 1 July 2024
Definition of dullard

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schizophrenic
schlemiel
schlemiels
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Cite this Entry

“Schlemiel.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/schlemiel. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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