do-nothings

noun

plural of do-nothing
1
as in slugs
a lazy person the new boss quickly figured out who the do-nothings were and fired them

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in bums
an idle worthless person he indiscriminately dismisses the state legislators as a bunch of do-nothings who live at the taxpayers' expense

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for do-nothings
  1. slugs
  2. bums
  3. drones
  4. derelicts
  5. snails
  6. beggars
  7. deadbeats
  8. hoboes
Noun
  • With the light load of powder that was behind them, these slugs couldn’t possibly have killed the tigress unless an extremely lucky shot had put them into a vital area at very close range.
    — Leslie E. Tassell, Outdoor Life, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Remember to bury the container deep enough to let the slugs in and out.
    — Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of slugs
Noun
  • For families Apart from the family-sized villa estates and kid-friendly menus, Nihi has a host of activities that will please even the youngest beach bums.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 13 Aug. 2026
  • The Coliseum stayed in business for 500 years, bums in seats twice a week, watching people hack each other to death.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026
Definition of bums
Noun
  • Between Thursday and Sunday, Russia fired almost 1,500 drones at Ukraine, and around 800 of them were jet-powered, Zelensky said.
    — Hanna Arhirova, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026
  • Russia overnight shot down 239 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, occupied Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Monday.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of drones
Noun
  • Rational fears or no, the fact remains that the 24 acres of Bayfront Park belong right now to a few misfits and derelicts.
    — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Mar. 2026
Definition of derelicts
Noun
  • Scientists rescued 34 endangered humped tree snails from Guam by collecting them in empty peanut butter jars ahead of a powerful typhoon.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 27 Aug. 2026
  • She and her hundreds of pet snails are visited by a young man named Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich) who has been sent by her American publisher to convince her to sign a contract to write one more Ripley novel.
    — Rebecca Ford, Vanity Fair, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of snails
Noun
  • Robert Pattinson’s big outburst in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ has gone viral—here’s the ‘beggars’ meme, explained.
    — Dani Di Placido, Forbes.com, 26 July 2026
  • The War In times of peace, Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) had hosted parties in their palace for all — even beggars were welcome.
    — Tanya Fedak, Variety, 18 July 2026
Definition of beggars
Noun
  • Housing prices and rents are inflated by restrictive zoning laws, union work and pay scale mandates, excessive building codes and environmental requirements, litigation and planning process delays, anti-landlord policies that favor deadbeats and squatters, and the list goes on.
    — Adam B. Summers, Oc Register, 25 Apr. 2026
Definition of deadbeats
Noun
  • The former, in which Burnett and Hamilton did a song-and-dance routine as Dust Bowl-era hobos, marked the first of several times that the two performed together.
    — Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025
  • From oversized, slouchy hobos to structured East-West silhouettes and laptop-ready work totes, this season’s best suede bags deliver a luxurious polish that will elevate every fall wardrobe.
    — Lauren Alexis Fisher, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2025
Definition of hoboes
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

do-nothing
do-nothings
Don Quixote
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Cite this Entry

“Do-nothings.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/do-nothings. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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