as in slug
a lazy person
tried to wake up the sluggards who were still sleeping at that late hour
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in slothful
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Recent Examples of sluggard
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 19 July 2019
Clearly, supervision at your job is lax, and your sluggard classmate is taking advantage of that.
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2017
Slug was – is – a variant on sluggard, which was actually used as a surname for some time, apparently.
—Ruth Walker, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Sep. 2017
French workers, whom the British like to dismiss as holiday-hogging sluggards, are more productive than the British.
—The Economist, 31 Aug. 2017
Moneyshow, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2021
Noun
Scar then proceeds to desolate the kingdom, with the help of hyenas, while Simba, in exile, grows up to become a pleasure-hunting, grub-eating sluggard.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 19 July 2019
Clearly, supervision at your job is lax, and your sluggard classmate is taking advantage of that.
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2017
Slug was – is – a variant on sluggard, which was actually used as a surname for some time, apparently.
—Ruth Walker, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Sep. 2017
French workers, whom the British like to dismiss as holiday-hogging sluggards, are more productive than the British.
—The Economist, 31 Aug. 2017
Adjective
The stock really has not done much of anything in the last five years, the stock following a similar sluggard pattern of the company’s revenue line.
—Moneyshow, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sluggard
Noun
-
However, the size doesn’t seem to matter for this slug.—
Irene Wright,
Miami Herald,
14 Mar. 2025
-
Arion ater slugs are especially damaging to crops of strawberries, potatoes, parsley and beans.—
Suzy Khimm,
NBC News,
7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Soviet Russia, too, experienced periodic panics about slothful bureaucrats impeding the dictatorship of the proletariat.—
Charlie Tyson,
The New Yorker,
15 Mar. 2025
-
At our test track, the buzzy little SUV needed a slothful 9.2 seconds to hit 60 mph.—
Drew Dorian,
Car and Driver,
23 Dec. 2022
Noun
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But, somehow, life finds a way: The seafloor was crawling with critters of all shapes and sizes, from centuries-old sponges and cup corals to octopuses, snails, worms, sea spiders, icefish and even a rare giant phantom jellyfish.—
Sarah Kuta,
Smithsonian Magazine,
21 Mar. 2025
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Mount Helix takes its name from the helix aspersa, a European garden snail that a Swiss biologist discovered in the area in 1872.—
Maura Fox,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
On Facebook, the city government shared images of cracks in the walls of the lazy river, rust in the mechanical room and chipping concrete on a pedestrian bridge.—
Eleanor Nash,
Kansas City Star,
23 Mar. 2025
-
In contrast to Joe Biden, Trump is not a traditional Atlanticist, views many of Washington's security arrangements in Europe as either antiquated or unfair, and tends to scoff at the European theater writ-large as lazy teenagers who take their parent's support for granted.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
Newsweek,
21 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
Search efforts involved 15-20 police dogs, drones, boats and additional rescue teams who covered the surrounding area on foot, Breault says.—
Sam Gillette,
People.com,
22 Mar. 2025
-
Meanwhile, a massive blaze at an oil depot in the Krasnodar region has continued to rage since it was hit by a Ukrainian drone attack late Wednesday.—
arkansasonline.com,
arkansasonline.com,
22 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
When an insecure yet ambitious regime attempts to carry out large-scale social transformation, the indolent bureaucrat makes for an ideal scapegoat.—
Charlie Tyson,
The New Yorker,
15 Mar. 2025
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It’s always been a period piece: Its story takes place in the just-post-Kennedy Bronx of Shanley’s childhood, where the rigid Sister Aloysius (Amy Ryan), the principal at St. Nicholas School, vehemently objects to ballpoint pens as one of many insidious gateways to a malign and indolent future.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
8 Mar. 2024
Noun
-
His discoveries promise to upset the gaming tables of every school of thought that wagers on new and untested art for idlers’ rewards: the love of novelty, the will to make or unmake reputations, the wish to be hip or au courant.—
Mark Greif,
Harper's Magazine,
26 July 2024
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Their name exudes the essence of an idler and slacker, but women’s loafers themselves are quite the opposite.—
Gaby Keiderling,
Harper's BAZAAR,
19 Jan. 2023
Adjective
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Expectations of real gains in livelihoods among China’s large, increasingly shiftless rural population will be much harder to fulfill in an era of slower growth.—
Scott Rozelle and Matthew Boswell,
Foreign Affairs,
5 Oct. 2022
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After the volunteers slink back to Paddy’s, the most shiftless person on campus will once again be Principal Coleman (Janelle James), whose ineptitude and vanity don’t prevent her from advocating for the students from time to time.—
Hannah Giorgis,
The Atlantic,
9 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sluggard.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sluggard. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.
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