sluggard

plural sluggards

1. A person who is lazy, stupid, or idle by habit.

   He tooke his rouſe with ſtopes of Rhenniſh wine / So kindly yeſternight to Bruno's health, / That all this day the ſluggard kéepes his bed.

   1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Mar[lowe], The Tragicall Historie of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. […], London: […] Iohn Wright, […], published 1616 (1631 reprint), →OCLC, signature E2, verso

2. A person slow to begin necessary work, a slothful person.

   But while these sluggards slept on, on dry land, snoring peacefully beside their owners, the oldest boat was up at the crack as old folk often are, and was therefore the first craft to move across the unfrozen lake.

   1981, Salman Rushdie, chapter 1, in Midnight's Children

3. A fearful or cowardly person, a poltroon.