malinger
Americanverb (used without object)
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malingers,
present (3rd person singular)
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malingered,
past participle, past
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malingering
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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malingersimple
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malingerssimple
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have malingeredperfect
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has malingeredperfect
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am malingeringprogressive
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are malingeringprogressive
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is malingeringprogressive
-
have been malingeringperfect progressive
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has been malingeringperfect progressive
Past
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malingeredsimple
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had malingeredperfect
-
was malingeringprogressive
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were malingeringprogressive
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had been malingeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of malinger
First recorded in 1810–20; from French malingre “sickly, ailing,” equivalent to mal- “bad, ill” + Old French heingre “haggard” (perhaps from Germanic ); see mal-
Explanation
When you malinger, you pretend to be sick. If you ever claimed to have a stomach ache in order to stay home from school, you know what it means to malinger. The word malinger comes from the French malingre, which can mean "ailing or sickly," but its exact origin is uncertain. One theory says that mal, or "wrongly," suggests the sick person is just faking. Lying about a stomach ache, holding the thermometer near a light bulb, refusing to get out of bed, moaning — these are classic tactics of those who malinger, or pretend to be too sick to do anything but lie around the house.
Vocabulary lists containing malinger
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In other cases, prisoners malinger to try to get themselves out of solitary confinement, or a transfer into a quieter mental health-centered unit.
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2022
She looked up malinger and read the definition: “To pretend to be ill in order to escape duty or work.’
From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
X For weeks, for months I have not seen the sun; The minatory dawns are leprous pale; The felon days malinger one by one; How like a dream Life is! how vain! how stale!
From Rhymes of a Rolling Stone by Robert W. (Robert William) Service
There isn't a sick man on board except one I've persuaded to malinger to keep me out of mischief.
From A Tall Ship On Other Naval Occasions by Bartimeus
To shirk or malinger on the man who paid me my wages was a sin, first, against myself, and second, against him.
From War of the Classes by Jack London
It malingers, this idea; it affects us still.
From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2011
Now it malingers because of people's concern for the second front.
From Time Magazine Archive
His fellow prisoners, the great German admirals Raeder and Doenitz, squabble like jealous ensigns; the disintegrating Rudolph Hess, once Hitler's deputy, malingers and throws fits to garner pity.
From Time Magazine Archive
Still, nobody would think for one moment that the child malingers when it is unable to answer questions, though these might concern well-known facts.
From Studies in Forensic Psychiatry by Bernard Glueck
Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep... tired... or it malingers.
From Poems by T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
Three times already have 1 malingered through medical examinations.
From Time Magazine Archive
He has never sulked, malingered, strutted, whined, wheedled or referred to himself in the third person.
From Time Magazine Archive
This man unquestionably suffered from a psychosis, and yet there is likewise no doubt that he malingered.
From Studies in Forensic Psychiatry by Bernard Glueck
That he malingered every frank psychotic symptom which he manifested is beyond doubt a fact, even though he would not have admitted so much himself.
From Studies in Forensic Psychiatry by Bernard Glueck
They malingered, got in the way, delayed, and doubled the work of Kit and Shorty.
From Smoke Bellew by Jack London
Neither the defence's witnesses nor the prison's doctors believed Jeffries was "malingering" - or intentionally fabricating or exaggerating his symptoms.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026
In some cases, they have attributed reported health-effects from fume exposure to factors including hyperventilation, jet lag, psychological stress, mass hysteria and malingering.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2025
Rather Rothman's test scores were so inconsistent and, at times, so low that they could point to only one conclusion: Rothman was malingering, Suarez said.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 17, 2023
That led to a suggestion of malingering from an unlikely source, the State Bar of California.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2023
I spent the game near enough to the ball to not get done for malingering, but far enough to avoid having to touch it.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
