loser
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /luːzə(ɹ)/
ipa: /luzɚ/
rhymes: -uːzə(ɹ)
Forms: form: losers
Etymology: From Middle English loser, losere, equivalent to lose + -er. In the sense of contemptible or worthless individual, perhaps an alteration of losel, which see.
Senses: examples: text: In a two-horse race there is always one winner and one loser.
text: He was always a good loser.
antonyms: winner
glosses: A person who loses; one who fails to win or thrive.
glosses: Something of poor quality.
examples: text: That guy is a born loser!
text: I'm a constant loser in love.
synonyms: failure
glosses: A person who is frequently unsuccessful in life.
examples: text: Mike didn't work but insisted that Jewell have a job. He would stay home and do whatever — smoke pot, screw around. He was a total loser, and she picked up the slack. That's around the time that Mom met her soon-to-be-next husband. He immediately moved in. He was a loser, too, with the same work ethic Mike had.
ref: 2012, Frank Shamrock, Charles Fleming, “Fatherhood”, in Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter, Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, page 203:
synonyms: word: crumb
word: losel
word: louse
word: absolute zero
word: asswipe
word: badling
word: blatherskite
word: bugger
word: carrion
word: cipher
word: cockstain
word: crumb
word: custron
word: dandiprat
word: doink
word: fellow
word: fritlag
word: geek
word: good-for-naught
word: good-for-nothing
word: hoon
word: lidderon
word: losel
word: loser
word: louse
word: maggot
word: nonce
word: nowmun
word: ne'er-do-well
word: no-good
word: no-mark
word: nonentity
word: pelf
word: pig dog
word: pile of shit
word: pissant
word: punk
word: puny
word: quat
word: ramp
word: rinky-dink
word: roly-poly
word: scullion
word: slubberdegullion
word: sparrow-fart
word: streak of piss
word: toerag
word: truant
word: twerp
word: wankstain
word: waste of space
word: underperson
word: unworthy
glosses: A contemptible or unfashionable person.
examples: text: Another way to speed search (in general) is to order or bias the hypothesis space based on some heuristic. Suppose you are a habitual car key loser and that you keep track of where your keys turn up after each search.
ref: 1999, Larry Medsker, Lakhmi C. Jain, Recurrent Neural Networks: Design and Applications, →ISBN, page 192:
text: But a West German reporting a lost passport in East Berlin during the years of the Wall was treated to a criminal investigation, with the passport loser as the potential criminal.
ref: 2004, Marianna S. Katona, Tales from the Berlin Wall: Recollections of Frequent Crossings, →ISBN:
ref: 2005, Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, The Biggest Loser: The Weight Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health and Life, →ISBN:
text: You're counting on this insurance company to pay you a check many years in the future. But for some companies, disability coverage has been a money loser.
ref: 2009, Jane Bryant Quinn, Making the Most of Your Money Now:
text: You have to think of yourself as an already amazing person who's hiding behind extra weight—a superhero in a disguise. If you follow the program, […] change the message from “I'm a big loser” to “I'm a big weight loser.”
ref: 2010, Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost, One Byte at a Time, →ISBN, page 109:
glosses: One who or that which loses something, such as extra weight, car keys, etc.
examples: text: A new Guard came to town and decided to flex his muscles with George. We could have told him that he was on a loser but bright young men, then as now, know it all.
ref: 1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 58:
text: Hardway bets are losers if they are rolled in any other combination—called "soft" or "easy" numbers. For instance, a Hardway bet on a 4 is a loser if the dice show as 3 and 1. Betting on a Hard 8 is a loser if the dice are rolled as a 5 and 3, or a 6 and 2. Naturally, if the 7 is rolled before the Hardway number shows, the bet is also a loser.
ref: 2001, Peter Svoboda, Beating the Casinos at Their Own Game, Square One Publishers, →ISBN, page 57:
text: In terms of betting on outcomes, Mars is a clear loser.
ref: 2021 December 17, Eric Ralph, “SpaceX to replicate Starbase, build multiple Starship launch pads in Florida”, in Teslarati, retrieved 07 Aug 2022:
glosses: A losing proposition, one that is likely to lose or already has lost (such as a losing bet or, analogously, a predictably fruitless task or errand).
examples: text: He's a three-time loser doing twenty years.
glosses: A person convicted of a crime, especially more than once.
Hyponyms: sense: person who fails
word: wooden spooner
sense: person who fails
english: last-place finisher
translation: last-place finisher
word: wooden spoonist
Derived terms: bad loser
born loser
cyberloser
first loser
good loser
hard loser
loser back home
loserboard
loser cruiser
loserdom
loserhood
loserish
loserless
loserly
loserness
losership
loser sign
lucky loser
luser
money-loser
nonloser
poor loser
sore loser
three-time loser
two-time loser
Related terms: losel