malingering

verb

present participle of malinger
as in idling
to pretend to be sick or injured in order to avoid doing work Because of his frequent absences, his boss suspected he was malingering.

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for malingering
  1. idling
  2. messing
  3. fooling
  4. bumming
  5. playing
  6. lingering
  7. resting
  8. loafing
Verb
  • Video of the confrontation appears to show Nelson idling in a snowy strip mall parking lot in his gray Dodge Ram when another driver in an even larger pickup pulls in beside him.
    — Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2026
  • One aspect that contributed to the gridlock was a number of Waymo's self-driving robotaxis idling on the road as traffic officials tried to remedy the halt in traffic.
    — Noe Padilla, USA Today, 10 July 2026
Definition of idling
Verb
  • There was something a little therapeutic about messing it up.
    — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 28 June 2026
  • No one can match her depth and passion to get vengeance on Krem of the Yellow Hills for messing with her family — a sentiment Cancers understand.
    — Lisa Stardust, PEOPLE, 26 June 2026
Definition of messing
Verb
  • Throughout all the commotion, Romelu Lukaku acted as decoy, holding on to the ball, fooling everyone, including the TV producer, who pulled up a graphic showing his recent penalty record.
    — Geir Jordet, New York Times, 15 July 2026
  • Speaking on Harvard Business School’s The Founder Mindset podcast, hosted by senior lecturer and serial entrepreneur Reza Satchu, the Shark Tank investor argued that anyone trying to balance a young company against the rest of their life is fooling themselves.
    — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 17 June 2026
Definition of fooling
Verb
  • Spring cleaning bumming you out?
    — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 30 Mar. 2026
  • That’s what was bumming him out.
    — Emily Longeretta, Variety, 3 Sep. 2025
Definition of bumming
Verb
  • Even with their side trip to Utah, Memphis had four of the top seven players in minutes in Vegas, helped by playing a sixth game in the championship.
    — John Hollinger, New York Times, 22 July 2026
  • Only the two teams that make the championship game playing a sixth game, but the Heat is likely out of the mix for the championship game with two losses in Las Vegas.
    — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 14 July 2026
Definition of playing
Verb
  • The floods drew attention to still unhealed wounds — and lingering regrets.
    — Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 20 July 2026
  • Despite the lingering outages, the disruptions remained concentrated rather than widespread.
    — Christopher Scarglato, Baltimore Sun, 19 July 2026
Definition of lingering
Verb
  • Armand assures him that Lestat’s not dead and simply resting before the concert, though Louis has no reason to believe this.
    — Sabrina Reed, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
  • The Kings again chose not to play Acuff, second-year guard Nique Clifford and second-year center Maxime Raynaud after resting them in Wednesday’s loss to the Boston Celtics.
    — Jason Anderson, Sacbee.com, 18 July 2026
Definition of resting
Verb
  • Kids who used to run to the field excited to play, suddenly started loafing to the field wearing their crocs with their heads buried in their phones.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 1 June 2026
  • The pair had been loafing for some time among a grove of apple trees on a private residence in Payson.
    — Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 20 Feb. 2026
Definition of loafing
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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malingerers
malingering
malingers
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Cite this Entry

“Malingering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malingering. Accessed 26 Jul. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of malingering for Spanish Speakers

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