slacker

From slack +‎ -er; compare especially slack off.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈslækɚ/

• Audio (southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækə(ɹ)

slacker (plural slackers)

1. One who procrastinates or is lazy.
2. A person lacking a sense of direction in life; an underachiever.
   • 2011 May 28, Catherine Rampell, quoting Carl Van Horn, “A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     “I don’t think this is a generation of slackers,” said Carl Van Horn, a labor economist at Rutgers. “This image of the kid who goes off and skis in Colorado, I don’t think that’s the correct image. Today’s young people are very focused on trying to work hard and to get ahead.”

3. A member of a certain 1990s subculture associated with Generation X.
   • 2005 December 18, Craig Modderno, “Slacker Dot-Com”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     Kevin Smith wrote and directed the slacker hits “Clerks,” “Dogma” and “Chasing Amy,” but lately it is his other life—maintaining six Web sites that he describes as “devoted to my fans and my films”—that seems to consume him.

   • 2010, Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus, page 121:

     Gen Xers were said to be lazy—“slackers” in the parlance of the time—who didn’t exhibit the straightforward work ethic of their predecessors.

4. (dated, US) A person who seeks to avoid military service.
   • 1918 September 10, “Take Slackers into Army”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     [S]everal hundred prisoners captured in North Jersey slacker raids last week and sent to this camp are being Inducted into military service today […]

   • 1943 September 29, C. P. Trussell, “Wheeler Assails Bureau ‘Slackers’”, in The New York Times‎, ISSN 0362-4331:

     Senator Burton K. Wheeler opened his fight in the Senate today […] , raising the cry of "slackers" against deferred workers in Government establishments and industry.

5. (rare, slang) A user of the Slackware Linux distribution.
   • 1996 August 15, stephen benson, “Re: How broken is Infomagic's Redhat linux?”, in comp.os.linux.setup, Usenet‎:

     I'm a slacker from way back btw

   • 2002 January 15, Josh, “Re: slackware installation issue”, in comp.os.linux, Usenet‎:

     Hope you become a happy slacker.

   • 2007 May 16, Dan C, “Re: Distro Poll, what do you use?”, in alt.os.linux, Usenet‎:

     Any real Slacker would know better than to top-post, AND post a bunch of HTML-crap to boot. You're not worthy.

• Clarkes, calkers, lackers, rackles, recalks