Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Informal A choice or preference: "Given their druthers, these hell-for-leather free marketeers might sell the post office” ( George F. Will).
Wiktionary
- n. US, informal Wishes, preferences, or ways.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the right or chance to choose
Etymologies
- A blend of would or 'd and rather in a dialect pronunciation (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of the phrase 'd rather, from would rather. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I like to say that I've never met a cookie I didn't like, but like most people, I do have my 'druthers'.”
“More than a third of American voters were denied having their "druthers" even mentioned or brought to "the table", and watched as single payer advocates were forcefully removed from the hearing room.”
“My views therefore have strengthened, but I recognize that the ability to act on my "druthers" is limited.”
“At the least, it might behoove us to accept and make the best of it, rather than whine about our "druthers" and cast about for someone, or something, to blame.”
“Huffed he, “When fitness nuts have their druthers we die of exhaustion to encourage the others to get in shape and not take their health for granted.””
“If I had my druthers, NATO would send in warplanes to take out every one of these knuckleheads.”
The Wall Street Journal: Three Tips for Surviving the Art Museum
“If I had my druthers, the new movie would feature - an outright conflict with the Mirror, Mirror universe; rip in the space-time continuum, BAD Federation meanies decide that it's great for their individual and multiple ambitions, and someone invents a giant, planet-sized agonizer.”
“Whom would I out, if I had my druthers and a sudden absence of judgement?”
“If he had his druthers, it would be put off for several years to allow alternative groups to mature.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Democrat's Triumphal Return to Cairo
“My druthers would be a upper house (Senate) elected by mixed party list preportional vote (all parties that get 10%+ of the popular vote) and a local single vote for the lower house (Commons).”
Think Progress » Santorum excuses Graham’s anti-Muslim comments, calls them ‘reasonable.’
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘druthers’.
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New to Me
anodyne, salient, ecumenical, salubrious, invective, incendiary, colophon, stola, druthers, syllogism, geodesic, quant and 16 more...
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Clever Words
Cool words to work into a chat ...
luftmensch, karoshi, sunglade, moonwake, afterwit, grawlix, blinkenlights, blinkenlight, somewhen, twoth, coolth, overmorrow and 4 more...
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Garbiage
word trash
parapluie, brobdingnagian, plié, segue, laconic, pastoral, phthisis, belly, synecdoche, apotheosis, sepulchral, mollification and 40 more...
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Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV
Words from the songs of Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis
zugzwang, valhalla, montalvo, ishist, tritons, mosh, siam, llano del rio, protohuman, tumbleweeds, ludwigshafen, ballyhoos and 349 more...
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andrew.simone's Words
elan, prestidigitation, flummoxed, autochthonous, missive, hoi polloi, schadenfreude, frou-frou, oolong, burleseque, ontic, etymology and 165 more...
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Pluralia Tantum
Nouns that are common in plural form but are non-existent or rarely used in singular form.
scissors, thanks, clothes, remains, tights, trousers, pants, news, billiards, means, mathematics, physics and 221 more...
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poonis's Words
windswept, brouhaha, nocuous, sanguine, dissonance, diatribe, homunculus, rancor, stupor, resplendent, anecdote, splay and 125 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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mstuckings's Words
defenestrate, lacklustre, vulgarise, simplistic, generative, astonished, elated, strident, aliquot, deliquescent, pipette, subjunctive and 104 more...
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sillygoose's Words
nefarious, waffle, dilettante, love, obstreperous, suggestible, fodder, plucky, trajectory, eclectic, juggernaut, demure and 115 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 2: More Common
pilgrim, indubitably, incorrigible, bombastic, histrionics, depredation, perspicuity, discombobulate, peregrination, ambulatory, redux, fractious and 164 more...
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gerwitz's Words
erudite, autodidactic, callipygian, ouroboros, zounds, fie, wabi, sabi, gedankenexperiment, zeitgeist, eliminativism, aether and 157 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Maineisms
Some of these were taken from older literature and have fallen out of use in the past few decades, but many are still used today in the same way they were used a century ago. By no means a compreh...
Yankeedom, wizzled, wing and wing, wickie-up, whiffletree, weewaw, wangan, wainy, upstair, twice-laid, tunket, trig and 136 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for druthers.
reesetee That one gets me every time! Jul 25, 2007
jennarenn Oh my. (blushing) Jul 25, 2007
oroboros J, see just deserts. Jul 25, 2007
reesetee I know I have one, and "druthers" is on it. Someone else may have gotten the same idea. :-) Jul 25, 2007
jennarenn I love that this word is always plural, like just desserts. Doesn't somebody have a list of these somewhere? Jul 25, 2007