malingerer
Fakes being sick
A malingerer is someone who fakes or exaggerates illness or injury to avoid work or duty.
The term carries strong disapproval—it implies deliberate deception rather than genuine suffering: The sergeant suspected the private was a malingerer.
Military and medical contexts use it most often, where distinguishing real incapacity from pretense matters.
One who avoids duty
- goldbrickShirk while appearing busy
- slackerIdle responsibility evader
- loaferLaceless slip-on shoe
- idlerHabitually unproductive person
dodger · layabout · truant · skiver · absentee · deadbeat · sluggard · ne'er-do-well
One who pretends
- fraudIntentional criminal trickery
- impostorOne feigning another's identity
- charlatanFaker claiming false expertise
- pretenderIllegitimate claimant to power
phony · sham · dissembler · deceiver · hoaxer · bluffer · masquerader · hypocrite
shirker
One who avoids duty
idler · dodger · layabout · truant · skiver · absentee · deadbeat · sluggard · ne'er-do-well · good-for-nothing
faker
One who pretends
- fraudIntentional criminal trickery
- impostorOne feigning another's identity
- charlatanFaker claiming false expertise
pretender · phony · sham · dissembler · deceiver · hoaxer · bluffer · masquerader · hypocrite · fabricator
hypochondriac
One who imagines ailments
- deceiversliar, liars, deceiver, fraud, fake
- fakesfake, fakes, counterfeit, counterfeits, imitation
- lazinesslaziness, sloth, idleness, apathy, lethargy
- absenteestruant, no-show, AWOL soldier, skipper, absconder
- layaboutsslacker, slackers, deadbeat, deadbeats, loafer
- avoidersdodger, evader, shirker, avoider, draft dodger
malingererhard worker
Industrious, dedicated person
go-getter · workhorse · hustler · eager beaver · dynamo