druther

plural druthers

1. in pluralraresingularsingular of druthers

   The teacher told Martha that she had invited a neighboring planter to send his children to her school, but "he said 'Me & my wife had no eddication, nor any of my gals, but I would rather they never would have any, than go to school with niggers.' So he had his druther!"⁴⁸

   2004, Sherry H. Penney, James D. Livingston, A Very Dangerous Woman: Martha Wright and Women's Rights

no infinitive tenses · no infinitive participles

1. UShumorousinformalno infinitiveoftenWould rather; would prefer to.

   I druther stay home today.

   3 more examples

   We druther go swimming than go to school.

   The old gentleman was for going along with me, but I said no, I could drive the horse myself, and I druther he wouldn't take no trouble about me.

   1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC

   "He's no slouch at dog-breakin', that's wot I say," one of the men on the wall cried enthusiastically. / "Druther break cayuses any day, and twice on Sundays," was the reply of the driver, as he climbed on the wagon and started the horses.

   1903 July, Jack London, “Into the Primitive”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 31