shirker

[ shur-ker ]

noun

1. a person who evades work, duty, responsibility, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of shirker¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; shirk + -er ¹

Example Sentences

The answer is obvious: Because he's a coward and a shirker, vastly out of his depth, painfully outmatched and fatally incapable of handling a crisis of any magnitude, much less this one.

From Salon

Yesterday, Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman highlighted some peak social distance shaming when she tweeted a photo of someone’s window plastered with posters revealing that their upstairs neighbor was a social-distance shirker.

From The Guardian

Consent, or at least acquiescence, for Osbornomics was founded on claims that reckless spending by Labour was at the root of Britain’s economic ailments, fused with a narrative that valuable hard-earned taxpayers’ money was frittered away on the undeserving poor, the “scrounger” and the “shirker”.

From The Guardian

My core has been like a phantom employee, a shirker who’s on the payroll but spends all day playing Candy Crush on his phone.

From Washington Post

A shirker, she tells us, is someone who runs away.

From New York Times