loser
loser Lexical Profile
loser Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person, team, or contestant that is defeated in a game, competition, election, or conflict.
"The tournament organizers awarded silver medals to the runners-up so that no competitor walked away feeling like a complete loser."
A person who fails frequently or is regarded as socially inept, incompetent, or unsuccessful in life (used informally and disparagingly).
"After struggling to hold down a steady job for years, he worried that his former classmates viewed him as a loser."
A person or entity that suffers a disadvantage, financial detriment, or privation as a result of a particular situation or event.
"Small local retailers were the biggest losers when the massive suburban shopping mall opened nearby."
Word Nuance & Usage
Commonly misspelled as 'looser' due to phonetic similarity; however, 'loser' is a noun referring to someone who fails to win, whereas 'looser' is the comparative form of the adjective 'loose' (meaning less tight).
• Rhymes for loser
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed in the mid-16th century from the verb 'lose' (from Old English 'losian', meaning to perish or be destroyed) plus the agent suffix '-er'. Its informal pejorative sense describing a chronically unsuccessful or socially inept person emerged in American English in the 1950s.