slacker

Etymology

From slack + -er; compare especially slack off.

noun

1. One who procrastinates or is lazy.
2. A person lacking a sense of direction in life; an underachiever.
   “I don’t think this is a generation of slackers,” said Carl Van Horn, a labor economist at Rutgers. “This image of the kid who goes off and skis in Colorado, I don’t think that’s the correct image. Today’s young people are very focused on trying to work hard and to get ahead.” 2011-05-28, Catherine Rampell, quoting Carl Van Horn, “A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. A member of a certain 1990s subculture associated with Generation X.
   Kevin Smith wrote and directed the slacker hits “Clerks,” “Dogma” and “Chasing Amy,” but lately it is his other life—maintaining six Web sites that he describes as “devoted to my fans and my films”—that seems to consume him. 2005-12-18, Craig Modderno, “Slacker Dot-Com”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   Gen Xers were said to be lazy—“slackers” in the parlance of the time—who didn’t exhibit the straightforward work ethic of their predecessors. 2010, Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus, page 121
4. (dated, US) A person who seeks to avoid military service.
   [S]everal hundred prisoners captured in North Jersey slacker raids last week and sent to this camp are being Inducted into military service today[…] 1918-09-10, “Take Slackers into Army”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   Senator Burton K. Wheeler opened his fight in the Senate today[…], raising the cry of "slackers" against deferred workers in Government establishments and industry. 1943-09-29, C. P. Trussell, “Wheeler Assails Bureau ‘Slackers’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
5. (rare, slang) A user of the Slackware Linux distribution.
   I'm a slacker from way back btw August 15, 1996, stephen benson, “Re: How broken is Infomagic's Redhat linux?”, in comp.os.linux.setup (Usenet)
   Hope you become a happy slacker. January 15, 2002, Josh, “Re: slackware installation issue”, in comp.os.linux (Usenet)
   Any real Slacker would know better than to top-post, AND post a bunch of HTML-crap to boot. You're not worthy. May 16, 2007, Dan C, “Re: Distro Poll, what do you use?”, in alt.os.linux (Usenet)