Word.ws English Dictionary

shlemiel

shlemiel is the alternative form of schlemiel.

Meaning of schlemiel

Noun

schlemiel (plural schlemiels)

  1. (Jewish, US, slang) A loser or a fool.
    • On Jewish Heritage Day, there was ample time to debate whether the Mets are schlemiels or schlimazels with the home team down 8-1 after five. Fans were given shirts that read “Let’s Go Mets” in Hebrew, but “Oy vey!” was more appropriate.2004 August 30, Michael Morrissey, “METS GET SLAMMED AGAIN – VENTURA GRANNY KEYS DODGER ROUT”, in New York Post
  2. (Jewish, US, slang) A person who is clumsy or who hurts others emotionally.

Forms of shlemiel

pluralshlemiels

Questions about shlemiel

What is shlemiel the alternative form of?
Shlemiel is the alternative form of schlemiel.

Words near shlemiel in the dictionary

  1. shlawgs
  2. shlck
  3. shld
  4. shlemiehl
  5. shlemiehls
  6. shlemiel
  7. shlemiels
  8. shlemozzle
  9. shlemozzles
  10. shlenter
  11. shlentered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shlemiel (page history and authors); schlemiel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “shlemiel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shlemiel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.