as in slug
a lazy person
tried to wake up the sluggards who were still sleeping at that late hour
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in slothful
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Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sluggard
Moneyshow, Forbes, 5 Mar. 2021
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
Noun
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
Adjective
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sluggard
Noun
-
One trick to capture slugs is to lay a board down next to a row crop and check the underside in the morning to gather the slugs.—
Tom MacCubbin,
The Orlando Sentinel,
5 July 2025
-
The rose slugs can be controlled with a systemic insect spray.—
Chris McKeown,
The Enquirer,
2 July 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
-
Slugs, snails, and even earwigs will often congregate in these damp spots and be much easier to collect.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
15 July 2025
-
The snail itself wasn’t found with the shells, but the shell was enough to diagnose the animal, Czaja said.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
11 July 2025
Adjective
-
It's adorned as a melting ski resort, featuring cool slides, a lazy river, and a wave pool.—
Lynnette Nicholas,
Parents,
23 July 2025
-
Babitz is often contrasted with her frenemy Joan Didion—Babitz was cast in the popular imagination as the fun, ditzy sexpot, as opposed to Didion’s cool, cold-blooded stenographer—but the maturity and thoughtfulness of these stories dispel any lazy stereotypes.—
The Atlantic Culture Desk,
The Atlantic,
23 July 2025
Noun
-
The President has already issued six Executive Orders to modernize defense acquisition, realize American drone dominance and rapidly increase shipbuilding capacity.—
Michael Brown,
Forbes.com,
20 July 2025
-
When weather allows, pilots will use drones to drop pingpong-size balls of chemicals to ignite small fires around the perimeter, which helps reinforce fire lines.—
Katie Langford,
Denver Post,
19 July 2025
Adjective
-
Screening disproportionately detects indolent tumors—those less likely to be lethal in the first place.—
Siddhartha Mukherjee,
New Yorker,
16 June 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
-
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 30 Jul. 2025.
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