laggard
/ˈlaɡəd
/noun
A person who makes slow progress and falls behind others: staff were under enormous pressure and there was no time for laggards...
- Among the laggards, General Electric fell 2 percent, as did Merck.
- The drivers in the long line of traffic that builds up behind these laggards get frustrated and so their driving becomes more dangerous.
- And if we don't innovate, if we are averse to taking risks in the area of innovation, we won't be around in the future because the expense ratios will drop so much, it will leave the laggards behind and they'll lose market share.
Synonyms
straggler, loiterer, lingerer, dawdler, sluggard, slug, snail, delayer, idler, loafer, lounger, shirker, layabout, lagger
informal lazybones, skiver, do-nothing, waster, slacker, slowcoach
North American informal slowpoke
archaic wastrel
French archaic fainéant
adjective
Slower than desired or expected: a bell to summon laggard children to school...
- Meanwhile, the steady rise in equity prices this year means that laggard companies are better able to restructure by selling off noncore assets at reasonable prices.
- Why bother to invest in training when the benefits are likely to accrue to laggard firms?
- Some key organizers think the AFL-CIO should still push laggard unions to organize more and help to coordinate more strategic, coordinated campaigns.
Derivatives
laggardly
- With a laggardly 21st place in the 2001 world broadband league table, and umpteen surveys highlighting the high levels of discontent over BT's installation and service performance, the telecoms giant is an easy target.
- It also provides a further explanation for why the country's growth remains at a laggardly 2% - compared with the UK's 2.7%.
- And his inherited wealth - not extravagant but more than sufficient - freed him from the pecuniary interests that tend to spur laggardly writers to action.
laggardness
- The camera's laggardness provides nothing but frustration.
Origin
Early 18th century (as an adjective): from lag1.