Citations:never-wozzer

English citations of never-wozzer, never-wozzers, neverwozzer, never-waser, never-was-er, never-wasser, and never-was'er

• 1914, Harris & Mead "advertisement" The Siren (University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign) Vol.3 (March 1914) p.188:

  An Attack of Spring Fever Means that you are languid, listless, have lost your "pep", and almost a never-wozzer. To properly revive and regain your old time vigor, you must stroll into our soda emporium and partake of our delicious Fountain beverages

• 1920, System Vol.37, p.52 :

  We have our "has-beens" and "never-wassers" in business.

• 1921 (Cartoon caption) New Zealand Truth No.826 (10 September 1921) p.1:

  Having sacked large numbers of civil servants, announced that there was no money for relief works, and declared that the Treasury was empty, Sir Francis Bell turns round and appoints five old political "has-beens" and "never--was-ers" to the Upper House, at a cost of some thousands per year to this hard-up country.

• 1933 Picturegoer (6 May 1933); cited in Geoffrey MacNab Searching for Stars: Stardom and Screen Acting in British Cinema →ISBN (Continuum 2000) p.63:

  the British industry is threatened by America's Throw-Outs, Has-Beens and Never-Wasers

• 1942 Traffic World, Vol.69 p.413:

  In the second place, the "has beens and never-wassers" were only one of the categories of those criticized.

• 1986, John Le Carré, chapter 4, in A Perfect Spy, published 2008, →ISBN, page 65:

  […] roaring visits to distant racetracks to flash our Owners' badges and watch the neverwozzers lose […]

• 1994, Rupert Cornwell, "Baseball: Swinging Jordan in search of a minor miracle" (The Independent: London) 6 August 1994

  Here is a man who, a year after guiding the Chicago Bulls to their third consecutive national basketball championship, has turned his back on $10m (£6.6m) a year to become a 31-year-old never-wozzer with perhaps 12 more months to prove he can make it in big-time baseball.

• 2005 Nick Rippington "The Match? Do I not like that!" (Wales on Sunday: Cardiff) 9 October 2005:

  Graham Taylor, a manager unable to differentiate between genuine stars and footballing journeymen (how else can you explain Carlton Palmer's number of caps for England?), fitted in completely with this sorry lot of has-beens and never-was'ers.

• 2006 Hugh MacDonald "Bazza, Dazza and days on the razza" The Herald (Glasgow) 12 August 2006, p.24:

  It is an area where the neverwozzers stalk the coudabeeners and the oncewozzers.

• 2012 Boris Johnson "House of Lords reform: Nick Clegg's crazy plan is a pay day for has-beens and never-wozzers" (Daily Telegraph: London) 25 June 2012:

  Consider for a second who is likely to seek election to the Lords/Senate. People who have never made it to Parliament; people who have been flung out of Parliament; has-beens; never-wozzers; people who can see the opportunity to avenge their rejections by finding an alternative route to power.