druthers

Meaning

1. 1nounpluralinformalAmerican

   What you would choose if you were free to decide; your own preference.

   Grammar: Almost always appears in the fixed pattern have your druthers: if I had my druthers.

   Patterns

   • have your druthers
   • if I had my druthers

   If I had my druthers, we would eat dinner outside tonight.

   Given his druthers, he would never wear a tie.

   She got her druthers and the meeting was moved to the afternoon.

Common combinations

if I had my druthers

If I had my druthers, we'd skip the meeting and go for a walk.

have your druthers

Everyone wants to have their druthers at the holiday table.

get your druthers

The boss rarely gets his druthers.

given my druthers

Given my druthers, I'd live by the sea.

Synonyms and how they differ

preference

Preference is neutral and works in any setting, whereas druthers is folksy and used only in speech or casual writing.

choice

Choice describes the act or right of choosing, while druthers describes what you would pick if you could.

way

Way, as in get my way, suggests winning an argument, while druthers just states what you would like.

Word family

rather adverb

the source of druthers, from 'I'd rather'

prefer verb

to like one thing better than another

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “druthers”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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