as in slug
a lazy person
tried to wake up the sluggards who were still sleeping at that late hour
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in slothful
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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.
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
-
Later, a pair of slugs that help the seed cross an arid landscape, like camels in the desert, glisten vividly.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
30 Dec. 2025
-
The slug eats algae, turns bright green, and spends the rest of its life converting light, water, and air into sugar, like a leaf.—
The Atlantic Science Desk,
The Atlantic,
27 Dec. 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
-
One of my prompts on the app detailed my phobia of snails in detail.—
Isoke Atiba,
Los Angeles Times,
9 Jan. 2026
-
Three days prior, UCLA permitted Iowa to slow the game to a snail’s pace, in which the Hawkeyes thrive.—
Aaron Heisen,
Daily News,
9 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
White cast-iron chairs are perfectly positioned on a terrace to catch Stromboli’s volcanic smoke-show, and occasional fiery belch, in the distance over a lazy cocktail.—
Rosalyn Wikeley,
Condé Nast Traveler,
10 Jan. 2026
-
Suzy Welch, a best-selling author and professor of management practice at New York University, hit back against those who brand the young generation lazy by reminiscing on her career journey.—
Emma Burleigh,
Fortune,
9 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Specialists from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, are conducting a detailed technical examination of recovered drone components.—
Jijo Malayil,
Interesting Engineering,
13 Jan. 2026
-
Walmart first partnered with Wing in August 2023, when the on-demand drone delivery technology was deployed in a Walmart Supercenter in Frisco, Texas.—
Glenn Taylor,
Sourcing Journal,
13 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Sixty-five-year-old Jep Gambardella, indolent and disenchanted, his eyes permanently imbued with gin and tonic, watches this parade of hollow, doomed, powerful yet depressed humanity.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
4 Aug. 2025
-
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
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
-
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
-
Why didn’t Tania just get one of her fellow Council wokesters to hire her shiftless, entitled kin?—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
28 Sep. 2025
-
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
Cite this Entry
“Sluggard.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sluggard. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
