hapless

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

hapless
    adj 1: deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim";
           "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her
           as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous
           appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a
           pitiful fate"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted
           limbs"; "a wretched life" [syn: {hapless}, {miserable},
           {misfortunate}, {pathetic}, {piteous}, {pitiable},
           {pitiful}, {poor}, {wretched}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Hapless \Hap"less\ (h[a^]p"l[e^]s), a.
   Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy;
   as, hapless youth; hapless maid. --Dryden.
   [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

33 Moby Thesaurus words for "hapless":
      badly off, depressed, dire, donsie, doomful, evil-starred, fatal,
      fortuneless, funest, ill off, ill-fated, ill-starred,
      in adverse circumstances, inauspicious, infelicitous, luckless,
      miserable, ominous, out of luck, planet-struck, sad, short of luck,
      star-crossed, unblessed, underprivileged, unfortunate, unhappy,
      unlucky, unprosperous, unprovidential, untoward, woeful,
      wretched

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