malinger

See also: målinger

English

WOTD – 22 July 2007

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /məˈlɪŋɡə/
• IPA^(key): /məˈlɪŋɡɚ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (AU):

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋɡə(ɹ)

Verb

malinger (third-person singular simple present malingers, present participle malingering, simple past and past participle malingered)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To feign illness, injury, or incapacitation in order to avoid work, obligation, or perilous risk.

   Hypernyms: (dated) goldbrick, shirk

   It is not uncommon on exam days for several students to malinger rather than prepare themselves.

   • 1984, The Psychiatric Quarterly, Volume 56

     It has been the impression of past investigators that persons who malinger psychosis have latent tendencies for the condition.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To self-inflict real injury or infection (to inflict self-harm) in order to avoid work, obligation, or perilous risk.

Derived terms

• malingerer
• malingering
• malingery

Translations

to feign illness

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 裝病／装病 (zh) (zhuāngbìng), 装病 (zh) (zhuāngbìng)

• German: simulieren (de)
• Hungarian: szimulál (hu), betegnek adja ki magát
• Irish: bheith ag meathlóireacht
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 仮病を使う (kebyō o tsukau)
• Maori: whakangehengehe
• Portuguese: fingir estar doente
• Russian: притворя́ться больны́м impf or m (pritvorjátʹsja bolʹným), симули́ровать (ru) impf or pf (simulírovatʹ) (in clinical context), масты́рка (ru) f (mastýrka) (labour camp slang)

See also

• factitious disorder, differentiated from malingering by a component of real mental illness as opposed to solely a sane calculation of shirking

Anagrams

• Germinal, germinal, maligner

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Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

malinger m or f

1. indefinite plural of maling