goldbricker

someone who pretends to work

TRANSLATION

goldbricker (person) = Drückeberger(in)

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

"Donald Trump, Bureaucracy Apprentice... Washington as a Gomorrah of influence peddling, GOLDBRICKING and waste, funded by hardworking taxpayers."

New York Times

Did you
know?

goldbrick
noun

1.  a worthless metal bar gilded and sold as solid gold in a swindle
2.  anything worthless passed off as genuine or valuable
3.  a person who tries to avoid work (also 'goldbricker')


verb
4.  to shirk a duty or avoid work

Collins Dictionary

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ORIGIN

Reed C. Waddell was an American swindler and underworld figure in New York during the mid- to late 19th century.

He was one of the most successful men of his trade making nearly a quarter of a million dollars using his "gold brick" swindle, a con game which he invented and introduced to New York in 1880 and from which the term "goldbricker" originated.

Nowadays, goldbricking is the practice of doing less work than one is able to, while maintaining the appearance of working.

Gold-coating a brick of worthless metal provides a perfect analogy, deployed so well by William Shakespeare in ‘The Merchant of Venice’:

“All that glitters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.”

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SYNONYMS
for goldbricker

quitter, slacker, shirker, dodger

cyberslacker = s/o who spends time using the internet at work for reasons that are not related to their job

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Big thanks to Louis for suggesting today's OWAD.

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