hapless
Prone to misfortune
Hapless means unlucky or unfortunate, with a suggestion of being pitiably so.
A hapless victim stumbles into trouble through no particular fault of their own.
The word carries a tone of sympathetic mockery—the hapless soul deserves pity but perhaps also a rueful smile: The hapless tourists wandered into the wrong neighborhood.
Without good fortune
- ill-fatedDestined to fail
- jinxedAfflicted with misfortune
- cursedUnder a malevolent spell
- star-crossedDoomed by destiny
unfortunate · ill-starred · inauspicious · unpropitious · hexed · blighted · snakebitten · unlucky
Arousing sorrowful contempt
- patheticArousing scornful pity
- wretchedExtremely unhappy or unfortunate
- forlornSad and abandoned
- miserableWretchedly unhappy, dejected
woeful · poor · sorry · pitiable · lamentable · deplorable · downtrodden · sympathetic
luckless
Without good fortune
star-crossed · unfortunate · ill-starred · inauspicious · unpropitious · hexed · blighted · snakebitten · unlucky · misfortune
pitiful
Arousing sorrowful contempt
miserable · woeful · poor · sorry · pitiable · lamentable · deplorable · downtrodden · sympathetic · heartbreaking
bungling
Mishandling through incompetence
fumbling · blundering · awkward · maladroit · hopeless · feckless · ineffectual · useless · clueless · klutzy
prey
Animal being hunted
patsy · dupe · fall-guy · pawn · stooge · sucker · chump · mark · underdog · sufferer
- unfortunatesvictims, unfortunate, wretch, poor soul, lost soul
- clumsy peopleklutz, clumsy, bumbling, butterfingers, bungler
- unreadyunprepared, ill-prepared, ill-equipped, unready, not ready
- sports loserslast place, wooden spoon, cellar dweller, dead last, tailender