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What is the correct word to describe the people who have not finished their work after the deadline?

For the antonym, there is finisher, but I can't find *unfinisher in the dictionary.

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Maybe non-finisher? – neil Oct 17 '12 at 10:39
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Slackers! maybe. – Kris Oct 17 '12 at 11:26
...... dead ................................ – Edwin Ashworth Oct 17 '12 at 13:20
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Close-voters, what is non-constructive about this question? – coleopterist Oct 17 '12 at 15:58
Don't you mean people who have not finished their work before the deadline? These would be the people who do finish after, or who never finish. Your phrasing seems to be logically similar to a double negative. – WarrenT Oct 18 '12 at 0:53
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5 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

The word I use at work is just "late". They're all late.

Unfinisher doesn't exist, but non-finisher does.

Your question is a little ambiguous though. Are you looking for a word for people who do finish, but after the deadline (flaky), or for people who never complete the work at all (non-finisher)?

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If you go by the questions title, "Word for people who don't make their deadline", then this answer is correct. :) – Mathew Foscarini Oct 17 '12 at 16:02
So, what do you call a person who is late for a deadline? The question is looking for a noun as its answer. – coleopterist Oct 17 '12 at 16:11
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The words finisher and deadline are not related, because deadline refers to a date and finisher refers to a state. A person is either a finisher or they are not.

Perhaps finisher vs procrastinator would be the best pairing.

John Smith always finishes before the deadline, but Mary Smith finishes after the deadline. They're both finishers; deadline is just a reference to a date. You have to apply logical rules for it to make any sense.

The opposite of finish is start, but there is no opposite for finisher. You could say Mary Smith is a starter but that has a completely different meaning than the opposite of finisher.

One could say the opposite of finisher is quitter. Since someone who never finishes must have quit.

Furthermore, the question in a way is in error, since a finisher could also be someone who always finishes after the deadline, but at least they always finish.

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Procrastinator is someone who keeps delaying things.

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but that is completely unrelated to missing deadlines or not. – Matt Эллен Oct 17 '12 at 13:23
unrelated to deadlines, is true, but so is finisher. I think this answer is valid. – Mathew Foscarini Oct 17 '12 at 17:02
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A person who regularly fails to accomplish what is expected is often called an underachiever. This is not just limited to lateness but other poor showings.

This author suggests a neologistic phrase time optimist for someone who chronically believes that they have more time than they do.

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+1 for time optimist. I gotta remember that term! – JLG Oct 18 '12 at 11:15
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Tardy

Occurring, arriving, acting, or done after the scheduled, expected, or usual time; late.

There's also under-performing which doesn't imply anything about deadlines, but describes people who don't meet the expectations.

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