loser

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /luːzə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /luzɚ/

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -uːzə(ɹ)

Noun

loser (plural losers)

1. A person who loses; one who fails to win or thrive.

   Antonym: winner

   In a two-horse race there is always one winner and one loser.

   He was always a good loser.

2. Something of poor quality.
3. (informal, US) A person who is frequently unsuccessful in life.

   Synonym: failure

   That guy is a born loser!

   I'm a constant loser in love.

4. (derogatory) A contemptible or unfashionable person.

   Synonyms: crumb, (archaic) losel, louse; see also Thesaurus:worthless person

   • 2012, Frank Shamrock, Charles Fleming, “Fatherhood”, in Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter, Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, page 203:

     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.

5. One who or that which loses something, such as extra weight, car keys, etc.
   • 1999, Larry Medsker, Lakhmi C. Jain, Recurrent Neural Networks: Design and Applications, →ISBN, page 192:

     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.

   • 2004, Marianna S. Katona, Tales from the Berlin Wall: Recollections of Frequent Crossings, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 2005, Maggie Greenwood-Robinson, The Biggest Loser: The Weight Loss Program to Transform Your Body, Health and Life, →ISBN:
   • 2009, Jane Bryant Quinn, Making the Most of Your Money Now:

     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.

   • 2010, Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost, One Byte at a Time, →ISBN, page 109:

     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.”

7. 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).
   • 1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 58:

     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.

   • 2001, Peter Svoboda, Beating the Casinos at Their Own Game‎, Square One Publishers, →ISBN, page 57:

     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.

   • 2021 December 17, Eric Ralph, “SpaceX to replicate Starbase, build multiple Starship launch pads in Florida”, in Teslarati‎, retrieved 2022-08-07:

     In terms of betting on outcomes, Mars is a clear loser.

8. (slang) A person convicted of a crime, especially more than once.

   He's a three-time loser doing twenty years.

Anagrams

• Leros, lores, Roels, Roles, soler, sorel, slore, roles, Sorel, Soler, rôles, eorls, relos, lo-res, orles, Rosel, Osler

Etymology

Borrowed from English loser.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lo‧ser

Noun

loser m (plural losers, diminutive losertje n)

1. loser

Alternative forms

• looser, looseur, louseur

Etymology

Borrowed from English loser.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lu.zœʁ/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /lu.zɚ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

loser m (plural losers)

1. (colloquial) loser

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈloːzɐ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

loser

1. comparative degree of lose
2. inflection of lose:
   1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
   2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
   3. strong genitive plural

Noun

loser m

1. indefinite plural of los