Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

malinger en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • (US) audio
  • /məˈlɪŋɡə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /məˈlɪŋɡɚ/ (US)
  • (Australia) audio

Etymology

From French malingrer, from adjective malingre (“delicate, fragile”).

Meanings

  1. (ambitransitive) To feign illness, injury, or incapacitation in order to avoid work, obligation, or perilous risk.
    • It is not uncommon on exam days for several students to malinger rather than prepare themselves.
    • And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! / Smoothed by long fingers, / Asleep … tired … or it malingers, / Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. 1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egoist […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 13:
    • It has been the impression of past investigators that persons who malinger psychosis have latent tendencies for the condition. 1984, The Psychiatric Quarterly, volume 56:
  2. (ambitransitive) To self-inflict real injury or infection (to inflict self-harm) in order to avoid work, obligation, or perilous risk.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
malingered Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
malingered Tense=Past lexicographic
malingering Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
malingers Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic

Deriveds

malingering · malingeror · malingerer · malingery

Hypernyms

shirk · goldbrick

Relateds

to call out someone for · differentiated from malingering by a component of real mental illness as opposed to solely a sane calculation of shirking · either factitious pretense · malingering · or accuse someone of · factitious disorder

Translations (31)

ru симули́ровать (to feign illness) · yue 詐病 /诈病 (to feign illness) · bg преструвам се на болен (to feign illness) · pt fingir estar doente (to feign illness) · pl udawać chorego (to feign illness) · fr feindre la maladie (to feign illness) · de simulieren (to feign illness) · pl symulować (to feign illness) · fr se faire porter pâle (to feign illness) · mi whakangehengehe (to feign illness) · ko 꾀병을 부리다 (to feign illness) · pl udać chorego (to feign illness) · hu színlel (to feign illness) · mk симулира (to feign illness) · es hacerse el enfermo (to feign illness) · cmn 裝病 /装病 (to feign illness) · hu szimulál (to feign illness) · ja 仮病を使う (to feign illness) · fr faire le malade (to feign illness) · hu tettet (to feign illness) · hu betegnek adja ki magát (to feign illness) · ru притворя́ться больны́м (to feign illness) · ru прики́дываться больны́м (to feign illness) · ga bheith ag meathlóireacht (to feign illness) · fi tekeytyä sairaaksi (to feign illness) · fi teeskennellä sairasta (to feign illness) · cs simulovat (to feign illness) · ru притвори́ться больны́м (to feign illness) · cs hodit se marod (to feign illness) · ru прики́нуться больны́м (to feign illness) · ar تَمَارَضَ (to feign illness)