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Permanent link for this word: malingerer

Dec 12, 2012

This week's theme
Words to describe people

This week's words
princox
nincompoop
malingerer
curmudgeon
whippersnapper

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

malingerer

PRONUNCIATION:

(muh-LING-gehr-uhr)

MEANING:

noun: One who feigns illness in order to avoid work.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French malingre (sickly). Earliest documented use: 1785.

USAGE:

"Various studies have undertaken how to separate malingerers from the legitimately brain-injured."
Shawn Vestal; Trooper's Tangle; Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington); Aug 17, 2012.

See more usage examples of malingerer in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him. -Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

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