druthers

plural noun

druth·ers ˈdrə-t͟hərz

Synonyms of druthers next

dialect

: free choice : preference

—used especially in the phrase if one had one's druthers

Did you know?

Druther is an alteration of "would rather." "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. 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 already become a plural noun, so Tom could reply, "There ain't any druthers about it, Huck Finn; nobody said anything about druthers." Druthers is a dialectal term.

Examples of druthers in a Sentence

If I had my druthers, I'd stay home tonight

Recent Examples on the Web Given my druthers, he'd have been left out of this. —

Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 17 Nov. 2010 If Grand Seiko’s fans had their druthers, this entire best-of list would be devoted to the brand’s models. —

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

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'druthers.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.