geezer

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English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

From guiser. Compare also German Low German Kieser (“an obstinate person; brute; savage”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɡizɚ/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɡiːzə/
  • Audio (AU):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːzə(ɹ)
  • Homophones: geyser, Giza (in some dialects)

Noun

geezer (plural geezers)

  1. (informal, chiefly British, dated in US) A male person.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:man
    • 1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 19, in Right Ho, Jeeves:
      You are a silly young geezer.
  2. (UK, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a wide boy.
    Synonyms: spiv, wide boy
    • 2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:
      Geezers need excitement / If their lives don't provide 'em this, they incite violence / Common sense, simple common sense
    • 2003, Carlton Leach, Muscle, John Blake Publishing →ISBN
      He turned out to be a proper geezer who was willing to listen to my proposition that if he took the door at the Ministry, I would pay him £400 a month to mark my cards.
    • 2009, Dreda Say Mitchell, Geezer Girls, Hachette UK →ISBN
      He was a bit of a geezer. Used to box with the Krays when he was a young 'un.
    • 2013, Charlotte Ward, Why Am I Always the One Before 'The One'?, Hachette UK →ISBN
      When I'd first met Adam, at work when we were both 23, the fact that he seemed a little rough around the edges appealed to me. He was a bit of a geezer, a joker, one of the lads.
  3. (UK, slang) Informal address to a male.
    Synonyms: mate; see also Thesaurus:friend
    Hi geezer, you alright?
  4. (informal, chiefly US, sometimes mildly derogatory) An old person, usually a male, typically a cranky old man.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:old man
    • 1885, Corin, The Truth about the Stage:
      In the right-hand division lay the two old geezers, as Sandy styled the landlord and his wife.
    • 2000, Moira McDonald, "Outtakes," Seattle Times, 25 Aug. (retrieved 6 Sep. 2008):
      The technical term for a female geezer is "old broad," but this is irrelevant, as nobody in Hollywood makes films about women over 55.
    • 2014, The Geezer Gallery, "[1]," (retrieved 31 Jan 2014):
      Why Geezer? Why would a fine arts gallery choose a name that conjures images of a grumpy old guy sitting on the front porch hollering, “get off my lawn”?
  5. (British) A device for boiling water for such domestic uses as heating or washing; a boiler. The normal spelling is water geyser.
  6. (archaic, British, slang) Wife; old woman.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:wife, Thesaurus:old woman
    • 1882, J. F. Mitchell, Jimmy Johnson's Holiday:
      He'd flirt and boat, but never wrote / A note to his old geezer.
    • 1886, Her Mother's Got the Hump:
      This frizzle-headed old geezer had a chin on her as rough well, as rough as her family, and they're rough 'uns.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

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