a person who evades work, duty, responsibility, etc.
Word origin
[1790–1800; shirk + -er1]This word is first recorded in the period 1790–1800. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: cannibalism, cutout, idealism, ideology, peanut-er is a suffix used in forming nouns designating persons from the object of their occupationor labor (hatter; tiler; tinner; moonshiner), or from their place of origin or abode (Icelander; southerner; villager), or designating either persons or things from some special characteristic or circumstance(six-footer; three-master; teetotaler; fiver; tenner)
Examples of 'shirker' in a sentence
shirker
I am not a shirker, a scrounger, a beggar, nor a thief.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
To quit is to prove oneself a coward, a shirker, a person of limited character — let's face it, a loser.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
For all the catwalk good looks, which he desires doubtless to preserve, he is no shirker of rugby's coarser elements.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
A shirker gets a white feather?
Globe and Mail (2003)
He is not a shirker, but he went into his shell when faced with some rough stuff.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Don't call me a shirker.
Globe and Mail (2003)
Synonyms of 'shirker'
slacker, piker, dodger, shirk
More Synonyms of shirker
(noun)
Synonyms
slacker
He's not a slacker, he's the best worker they've got.
piker (Australian, New Zealand, slang)
He works so hard he makes the rest of us look like pikers.
dodger
shirk
quitter
skiver (British, slang)
He was a skiver and a thief.
idler
He resents being seen as a moneyed idler.
malingerer
bludger (Australian, New Zealand, informal)
clock-watcher
gold brick (US, slang)
scrimshanker (British military, slang)
Additional synonyms
in the sense of idler
He resents being seen as a moneyed idler.
Synonyms
loafer,
lounger,
piker (Australian, New Zealand, slang),
drone,
dodger,
slouch (informal),
shirker,
slacker,
couch potato (slang),
sloth,
dawdler,
laggard,
time-waster,
layabout,
deadbeat (informal, US, Canadian),
skiver (British, slang),
malingerer,
sluggard,
bludger (Australian, New Zealand, informal),
clock-watcher,
slugabed,
lazybones (informal),
Wearie Willie (informal)
in the sense of piker
Definition
shirker
He works so hard he makes the rest of us look like pikers.