layabout
(ˈleɪəbaʊt)
[f. lay v.1 43 + about adv. 8.]
An habitual loafer, idler, or tramp. Also attrib. or as adj.
| 1932 G. S. Moncrieff Café Bar viii. 78 These layabouts were rotters. 1932 S. Pearson To Streets & Back xxiv. 234 The ‘down and outs’ in Hyde Park are permanent ‘layabouts’. 1959 Punch 19 Aug. 57/1 He simply uses any old-fashioned plot about layabout art-lecturers getting mixed up with funny spies. 1959 H. Pinter Birthday Party (1960) 81 Keep an eye open for low-lives [sic], for schnorrers and for layabouts. He didn't mention names. 1961 John o' London's 21 Sept. 327/1 A colourful tour of layabout London. 1968 New Scientist 2 May 217/2 Those of us gifted by nature with inertia but maligned by society as layabouts. 1972 D. Haston In High Places ii. 35 There was another strong twosome..in the hut, otherwise only student layabouts left. |