Malinger

Malinger is a verb that means to exaggerate or feign illness to escape work. The French word malingre (MAL ange) means ‘sickly.’ But once the word was imported into English, its meaning shifted to mean pretending to be sick — specifically to avoid work. Here’s a sample: With so much to complete at the office, I was tempted to malinger. But in the end, I just felt that faking illness would I would saddle my co-workers with too much to do, so I decided against it.