nudnik

nudnik

An irritating, nagging person; a boring pest of a person who makes constant or persistent demands or criticisms. Originating from the Yiddish verb nuden A: "Tom? Can I speak to you for a moment?" B: "Sheesh, what does that nudnik want now?" Quit being a nudnik and leave me alone already! I'll do the dishes a little later!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

nudnik

(ˈnʊdnɪk)
n. a bore; a pest; a crank. (From Russian via Yiddish. Also a term of address.) Tell that nudnik to stay away from here. He is such a pest.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • mensch
  • hanger-on
  • frog in a small pond
  • pond
  • a big fish in a small pond
  • a big frog in a small pond
  • big fish in a small pond
  • big frog in a small pond
  • change off
  • big drink of water
References in periodicals archive
Though oysgegrinte did not survive, such is not the case for shlemiel, shlemazl, yente, klutz, shmendrik, krechtser, kibitzer, kvetsh, noodge, nudnik, shleper, nokhshleper, khokhm, knaker, and gantser knaker, just to name a few human types whose Yiddish name tags are not unfamiliar to us.
She's active in ACT, a monthly book club and a weekly improv group called the Nudniks, but it's "at my own pace".
We should leash boring nudniks; otherwise they will manage to BREAK our spirit.
There are the occasional nudniks, but relatively few given the size of the community
Besser, "NPR Radio Wars Putting Jewish Groups in a Bind," Jewish Week, May 20, 2005; Samuel Freedman, "From 'Balance' to Censorship: Bush's Cynical Plan for NPR," Forward May 27, 2005; Nathan Guttman, "Enough Already from Those Pro-Israel Nudniks," Ha'aretz, February l, 2005; E.J.
Coached by Antisa (Tarik Filipovic), a major player in suit and dark glasses accompanied by hulking thugs, the two nudniks are forced to memorize a convincing, if flaky story about kidnapping Skoko for money he owed, supposedly seizing him at precisely the same time as the occurrence of the atrocity for which Skoko is being tried.
stood for "Sprachgefuhl Necessitates Our Ongoing Tendance" or "Syntax Nudniks of Our Time" depended on whether or not you were one.
On the other hand, we've had to deal with an increasing number of nudniks whose requests were so completely ill-conceived that one has to marvel at their chutzpah...
The denizens of Linda Manor are an astoundingly cheerful bunch, these self-described nudniks who revel in all the sitting around, which they call "stupidvising"; who celebrate New Year's Eve in the middle of the afternoon because that is when they're all awake; who put on plays for one another and make greeting cards for the soldiers in the Persian Gulf War.
After all, this is the woman who told some particularly audacious litigants: "I eat morons like you for breakfast." Her attitude reassured me that in a world full of scammers and nudniks, there were still people who exercised the same kind of no-nonsense approach to life that was a cornerstone of my upbringing.
I was so relieved that he wasn't going to send me to the poorhouse or to jail that I gave him a good deal more time than I ordinarily would have to party nudniks. Since he had claimed to be a descendant of Peretz, I got around to telling him, and only him, about the letter from the unbeliever of Nemirov in Israel.
In the winter of 1995, I sought escape from these local nudniks online, slowly wading into the already saturated U.S.
The denizens of Linda Manor are an astoundingly cheerful bunch, these self-described nudniks who revel in all the sitting around, which they call "stupidvising"; who celebrate New Year's Eve in the middle of-the afternoon because that is when they're all awake; who put on plays for one another and make greeting cards for the soldiers in the Persian Gulf War.