Word.ws English Dictionary

dosser

/ˈdɒsə(ɹ)/

dosser noun: someone who dosses, someone known for avoiding work.

Noun (1)

dosser (plural dossers)

  1. (Ireland, UK) Someone who dosses, someone known for avoiding work.
    • Illustrating the strength of feeling, some said Dorries was “never here and is as useful as a chocolate teapot”, while “Dosser Dorries” posters appeared in the area.2023 October 20, “Labour takes Nadine Dorries’ former seat in Mid Bedfordshire byelection”, in The Guardian, UK
  2. A homeless and jobless person.
    • Formerly they endeavoured to occupy all the seats, but the lynx-eyed Metropolitan Police declined to allow any such proceedings, and the dossers, knowing the invariable kindness of the City Police, made tracks for that portion of the Embankment which, lying east of the Temple, comes under the...1890, William Booth, chapter 3, in In Darkest England and the Way Out
  3. One who lodges in a doss-house.

Noun (2)

dosser (plural dossers)

  1. (obsolete) A pannier or basket.
    • To hire a ripper's mare, and buy new dossers.1626 February 13 (licensing date; Gregorian calendar), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Noble Gentleman”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey...
  2. (obsolete) A hanging tapestry; a dorsal.

Synonyms of dosser

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of dosser

Forms of dosser

pluraldossers
alternative formdorsel
alternative formdorser

Origin of dosser

From doss + -er.

Late Latin dosserum, or French dossier (“bundle of papers, part of a basket resting on the back”), from Latin dorsum (“back”). See dorsal.

Words that rhyme with dosser

Questions about dosser

What does dosser mean?
Dosser means someone who dosses, someone known for avoiding work.
What part of speech is dosser?
Dosser is a noun.
How do you pronounce dosser?
Dosser is pronounced /ˈdɒsə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of dosser?
The plural of dosser is dossers.

Words near dosser in the dictionary

  1. dossed down
  2. dossed off
  3. dossed out
  4. dossel
  5. dossels
  6. dosser
  7. dosseret
  8. dosserets
  9. dossers
  10. dosses
  11. dosses about

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dosser (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dosser.wav.

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