Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a harmless eccentric, a born loser, a nobody; also attrib.

1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day By Day’ in Sporting Times 18 Jan. 3/1: Acha Nebbish! Vhat a gershrei vhas there!
1900		Sporting Times 3 Mar. 1/4: Accha Nebbish! the momzir’s owed me five times fifty since las’ Ascot.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Aug. 4/7: The game was exciting, the gilt was planked, ‘Ach-a-nebbish,’ but ‘vat a geschrei’.
1919		F. Hurst Humoresque 8: ‘Schlemmil!’ he cried. ‘Momser! Ganef! Nebich!’ [Ibid.] 25: Sol, this is him – a little grown up from such a nebich like you remember him – nu?
1919		‘Leaves from a Yiddish Lexicon’ Jewish Guardian (London) 24 Oct. 9/1: Nebbich.
1938		J.B. Booth Sporting Times 263: Accha Nebbish [...] Ye can’t win a little race like this without layin’ out a hundred and’ twenty-five quid for jockeys.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 93: A nebbish is not exactly an incompetent, a dope or a weakling. He is simply the one in the crowd that you always forget to introduce.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 189: The nebishes and the schlemihls certainly get an all-around friggin.
1960		(con. 1930s) R. Barber Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) 251: ‘Walter!’ Billy said. ‘Nebbish! Wake up.’.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 23: I was beginning to think he must be nothing but a right nebish.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 218: Not you, you neblish.
1973		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 116: The very same fascist nebbishes that keep you from buying juice in highschool.
1987		DA Mario Merola N.Y. Times 28 May n.p.: You want me to be a nebbish and do nothing—not prosecute—when we get tough cases which could go either way? [R].
1997		Mad mag. Mar. 45: A nebbish with the personality of an ironing board.
2004		Mad mag. June 15: I changed from a self-conscious nebbish of a loser to an irresistable babe magnet.
2005		the jeffkirk.net weblog 21 Jan. [blog] Danny, a hyperkinetic nebbish who is unjustly pleased with his abilities as an entertainer.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 56: Andy was no intellectual giant [...] but just another nebbish.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 35: A nervous nebbish in a dreary drip-dry suit.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 193: Doofus Sid Leiffler [...] the nebbish squadroom cop.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

2010

Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 23: A litle nebbish math whiz named Meyer.