deadbeat
Shirks financial obligations
A deadbeat is someone who avoids paying debts or obligations, especially financial ones.
The word often appears in deadbeat dad—a father who fails to pay child support.
More broadly, a deadbeat is a lazy person who contributes nothing: Her ex-husband was a total deadbeat.
As an adjective, deadbeat describes mechanisms that stop without recoil.
One who cadges habitually
- spongeAbsorbent cleaning material
- parasiteOne exploiting a host
- leechBlood-feeding aquatic worm
- freeloaderOne exploiting others' generosity
scrounger · cadger · bloodsucker · hanger-on · barnacle · dependent · user · taker
Defeated competitor
One not in attendance
- negligentFailing in due care
- absentNot in attendance
- delinquentFailing in duty
- nonsupportingNot carrying weight
irresponsible · abandoning · dodger · defaulter · runaway · deserter · estranged · uninvolved
Without activity or purpose
- shiftlessLacking motivation or ambition
- indolentHabitually avoiding exertion
- slothfulHabitually avoiding exertion
- unmotivatedLacking incentive or drive
unambitious · aimless · loafing · workshy · lethargic · lackadaisical · sluggish · unproductive
moocher
One who cadges habitually
freeloader · scrounger · cadger · bloodsucker · hanger-on · barnacle · dependent · user · taker · bum
loser
Defeated competitor
scoundrel · sleaze · creep · jerk · louse · heel · rat · skunk · snake · scum
absentee
One not in attendance
- negligentFailing in due care
- absentNot in attendance
- delinquentFailing in duty
nonsupporting · irresponsible · abandoning · dodger · defaulter · runaway · deserter · estranged · uninvolved · missing
idle
Without activity or purpose
- shiftlessLacking motivation or ambition
- indolentHabitually avoiding exertion
- slothfulHabitually avoiding exertion
unmotivated · unambitious · aimless · loafing · workshy · lethargic · lackadaisical · sluggish · unproductive · dawdling
- compound slangairhead, birdbrain, blockhead, bonehead, dimwit
- lazinesslaziness, sloth, idleness, apathy, lethargy
- lazybonescouch potato, lazybones, lazy bones, loafer, sluggard
- death idiomskick the bucket, six feet under, kiss of death, death wish, death trap
- layaboutsslacker, slackers, loafer, loafers, bum
- compound wordsbookmark, breakdown, sunlight, breakup, snowflake
deadbeatgo-getter
Ambitious, driven person
hustler · self-starter · hard worker · workaholic · dynamo
deadbeatprovider
One who furnishes things
breadwinner · stand-up guy · man of his word · solid citizen · mensch
- deadbeat dadParent shirking child support