druthers
plural noun
Did you know?
Nowadays, you’re much more likely to encounter the plural noun druthers than its singular forebear, but that wasn’t always the case. Druther, an alteration of “would rather” in some U.S. English dialects, first appeared in writing in the late 1800s. “Any way you druther have it, that is the way I druther have it,” says Huck to Tom in Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Detective (a sequel to the more famous Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which also included the word druther). This example of metanalysis (the shifting of a sound from one element of a phrase to another) had been around for some time in everyday speech when Twain put those words in Huck’s mouth. By then, in fact, druthers had also become a plural noun, so Tom could reply, “There ain’t any druthers about it, Huck Finn; nobody said anything about druthers,” though druthers didn’t overtake druther in popularity (at least in print) until the mid-1900s.
Examples of druthers in a Sentence
Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 17 Dec. 2022
If Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt has his druthers, Deshaun Watson will take every snap over the final five games, and the Browns won’t to turn to Jacoby Brissett — even in the almost must-win game Sunday in Cincinnati.
—cleveland, 8 Dec. 2022
If Mandalorian masterminds Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni had their druthers, then Star Wars creator George Lucas would be popping by too.
—Emlyn Travis, EW.com, 1 Dec. 2022
If King had his druthers, his company would bring back the Bell Beefer, an old favorite of his.
—Aman Kidwai, Fortune, 29 July 2022
Someone has to pay, and if businesses have their druthers that someone is someone else.
—Justin Lahart, WSJ, 14 July 2021
If Peter DeBoer had his druthers, the Vegas Golden Knights coach would roll his regular four lines and rely on his team's depth to score.
—Randy Johnson, Star Tribune, 18 May 2021
Given their druthers, the Spurs would prefer to enter any kind of extra game soaring instead of sliding.
—Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 5 May 2021
Cite this Entry
“Druthers.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/druthers. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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