A laggard is someone who falls behind others, moving slowly or failing to keep up. When the class lines up to go to lunch and one student drags their feet and arrives last every time, that student is being a laggard. The word suggests someone who could move faster but doesn't, perhaps because they're distracted, unmotivated, or simply dawdling.

You might hear about laggards in a race who finish far behind the leaders, or students who are laggards in turning in their homework, always submitting assignments late. In technology, companies that refuse to adopt new tools and methods while their competitors surge ahead get called laggards.

The word carries a mildly critical tone. Being slow sometimes makes sense: you might walk slowly to carefully observe nature on a hike. But a laggard isn't being thoughtfully slow, they're simply falling behind when they should be keeping pace. When a teacher says “no laggards” before a field trip, she means everyone needs to stick with the group and not wander off or lag behind.