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
-
Pickett said the multiple layers of packaging are vital, since slugs (mollusks, not insects) end up falling into the liquid, and their smell is uniquely bad.—
Madeline Bodin,
Smithsonian Magazine,
27 June 2025
-
Unlike most pests, slugs and snails are most active at night or in cool, wet weather.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
25 June 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
-
From an outdoor kitchen emerged a lavish feast: bruschetta topped with mangrove clams; squash soup with snails; fish fritters; sea-bass kinilaw—ceviche’s Filipino cousin—cured with lime and young-coconut vinegar.—
Jeff Chu,
Travel + Leisure,
16 June 2025
-
In Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake in the world, rocky outcrops provide a home for freshwater snails.—
Irene Wright,
Miami Herald,
6 June 2025
Adjective
-
Hawaiian Falls Waco Water Park boasts an 800-foot-long lazy river, water slides, and a wave pool.—
Lydia Mansel,
Southern Living,
17 June 2025
-
Filter out the lazy networkers who expect instant replies.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
17 June 2025
Noun
-
According to Ukrainian security services, the strikes damaged one-third of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers causing billions of dollars of damage, and via drones worth around $400 each.—
Alex Ritman,
Variety,
26 June 2025
-
There will be live music, children’s games and activities along with a beer garden and a food truck Doors open at 6 p.m., and the drone light show is at 9 p.m.—
Linda Mcintosh,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
25 June 2025
Adjective
-
Her tumor appears ominous but is, by nature, indolent—slow-growing, noninvasive, never destined to threaten her life.—
Siddhartha Mukherjee,
New Yorker,
16 June 2025
-
White hair denotes a lymphatic and indolent constitution.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 June 2025
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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The film, like How to Train Your Dragon, is about a shiftless youngster (Lilo, a Hawaiian girl who has been acting out since the death of her parents) bonding with a fantasy creature (Stitch, a blue alien experiment designed as a weapon of destruction).—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
13 June 2025
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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
Cite this Entry
“Sluggard.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sluggard. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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