idler

There is an almost continuous succession of scenes in which Nicholson sketches this idler, lover, jokester, manipulator, con man, gambler, loner.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2023

Oh, that would be the uncle who willed his farm and estate to Onegin, a charming idler.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2020

What’s missing is a palpable grit, particularly in Whitted’s performance, that would help us to a belief in Hal’s head-spinning pivot from idler and carouser to beloved hero of the realm.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2019

The album title, she said, refers to the role of the idler wheel in an engine, which does not propel directly but is connected to everything.

From New York Times ● May 30, 2012

Truant, trōō′ant, n. an idler: a boy who, idly or without excuse, absents himself from school.—adj. wandering from duty: loitering: idle.—v.i. to play truant.—ns.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

During a BBC leadership debate, she was challenged about a comment in Britannia Unchained, describing British workers as "among the worst idlers in the world".

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2022

This is something I have thought about more and more in recent years, and it is why I have always preferred doers to idlers, whiners and excuse-makers.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 29, 2022

Contrary to predictions by slavery’s defenders, the liberated slaves did not become idlers, but divided their time between continued plantation work and cultivating individual plots the army assigned them.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

Those idlers — the Trumps of the world — are Alger’s villains.

From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2017

Gradually the citizens of Wethersfield claimed their orders, the merchants from Hartford counted off the barrels of nails and oil and salt and only a handful of idlers still stood about.

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare