Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Aus., also no-hope) a useless or incompetent person or animal, one from whom no good can be expected.

[1943		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. (2nd edn) 54: No-hoper, an outsider. (Racing slang)].
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats xii: Let me tell you something about our perimeter defences, tell you why Jerry will never get into Tobruk. He’s a no-hoper.
1954		Mail (Adelaide) 4 Sept. 16/3: Some no hopes. ‘But there is also the no-hoper who joins the Army simply to get out of trouble’.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 44: What a bunch of no-hopers! How in hell did we win the war?
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 138: Old Pop Taylor is a real no-hoper, he’s always pissed.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 17: [of a racehorse] Then simultaneously all over Australia a few hours before the Cup an avalanche of money descended on bookmakers for the supposed ‘no hoper’.
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 18: There are a lot of our people who will give up [...] and become no-hopers and drunks and goodness knows what.
1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 121: You’re not like the no-hopers I usually get.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 226: I met her ex-husband [...] Bit of a no-hoper. Desperate punter.
1986		B. Geldof Is That It? 117: I felt I had finally done something to make my old man proud of me [...] I wasn’t a complete no-hope.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 230: The bloke’s a bloody no-hoper. He’s on the bludge. He’s a gambler, for god’s sake!
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] [A] generation of psychos, pick-pockets, car thieves, junkies, burglars, no-hopers, rent boys and drop-outs.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 71: He was a freak, a total no-hoper.
2000		Observer Mag. 9 Jan. 32: You understand why all so many brilliantly successful people were academic no-hopers at school.
2009		P. Temple Truth 255: He boxed favourites with no-hopers, the longer the better, threw money away.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 200: It’s likesay the no-hopers like muggins here whae ye think should jist cash in the chips.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1947		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 Sept. 1s/3: Butch Jerger, a broken-down hoop who could only get no-hoper rides on country courses.
1954		Mirror (Perth) 8 May 1: Even no-hoper addicts don’t deserve it.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] That’s all it took to go through all that money, to [...] send it around the racecourses of Australia on the backs of no-hoper horses.

3. (Aus.) a recidivist.

1953		K. Tennant Tell Morning This (1967) 201: It’s a no-hoper’s jail—a lot of old warbs and kids mixed up with coves like Amos the Cannibal and chaps that razors bounce off.
1980		M. Williams Dingo! 126: Parramatta was the end of the line in prisoner material. It was a holding place for old lags and no-hopers. The crims were habituals.