slacker

[slak-er]

noun

1. a person who evades their duty or work; shirker.

   Synonyms: laggard, dodger, malingerer

2. an especially educated young person who is antimaterialistic, purposeless, apathetic, and usually works in a dead-end job.

3. a person who evades military service.

slacker

/ ˈslækə /

noun

1. a person who evades work or duty; shirker

2. informal

   1. an educated young adult characterized by cynicism and apathy

   2. ( as modifier )

      slacker culture

Word History and Origins

Origin of slacker¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; slack ¹ ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. ); slacker def. 2 popularized by the film Slackers (1991)

Example Sentences

Ellis, meanwhile, has a nearly 14-year-old son who is in what she calls a “teenage, hormonal place” — not that dissimilar to Emily, who has three slacker teenagers obsessed with video games.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

These are the people cranking up productivity, impressing managers and making the rest of us look like slackers.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He decries the lack of unifying concepts like “the West” and sees too many Americans as slackers with no sense of national pride or patriotism.

Read more on Salon

Barnoff says Nathaniel was a bit of a slacker when he was in junior high and taking lessons at the Cleveland Music School Settlement.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

My backstory was that they lived in New York — he was trying to get in a band, it didn’t really happen for him, he was kind of a slacker.

Read more on Los Angeles Times