hefker

Definitions

• running wild, undisciplined
• ownerless

Example Sentences

• "All of the stuff that's hefker in our kitchen is on that table so that everyone knows they can eat it."
• "What I could see was benchloads of babysitters shmoozing with each other and the kids running around hefker." (http://www.imamother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1518622)

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew, Yiddish

Etymology

הפֿקר

Who Uses This

Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)

Regions

North America

Dictionaries

Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).