greaser
greaser noun: someone or something that greases (applies grease).
Noun
greaser (plural greasers)
- Someone or something that greases (applies grease).
- The pole was greased and men tried to walk out to the end of it and dislodge the crate. The pole was supple, the crate swayed as each man crept out clinging desperately and finally fell off into the sea. […] People roared with laughter and greasers applied fresh grease for the next person's try.1942, Emily Carr, “Regatta”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC
- ... incidentally, our correspondent tells of a West Indian who applied for a job at Kings Cross as motion greaser - but with no idea of what he would have to grease and why. Invited to find out and return within a month, he did, and nowadays the Kings Cross engines are as efficiently greased as any...1961 March, “Talking of trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 131
- A mechanic.
- A biker, a tough.
- A rocker or metalhead, especially one who listens to 1950s rock and roll or 1980s thrash metal.
- By such standards, the Greasers are pretty minor stuff. Basically, they're just the 1970 version of that time-honored English figure, the Leather Boy. During the fifties, he was known as the Teddy Boy; in the early sixties, he became the Rocker; and now, after a couple of earlier attempts at...1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- A very soft landing.
- Synonyms:
- greased landing
- A Latin American, especially a Mexican.
- A pair of Greasers were ahead of me, but I could see only their outlines, and they didn't seem to interfere any with the scenery.1907, Stewart Edward White, chapter 11, in Arizona Nights
- An Italian.
- A Greek.
Proper noun capitalized: Greaser
Greaser (plural Greasers)
- A surname from German.
greaser meaning in Tamil
greaser in Tamil
- கொழுப்புச்செலுத்தி
Examples of greaser in a sentence
- ... incidentally, our correspondent tells of a West Indian who applied for a job at Kings Cross as motion greaser - but with no idea of what he would have to grease and why.1961 March, “Talking of trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 131:
- By such standards, the Greasers are pretty minor stuff.1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Synonyms of greaser
Forms of greaser
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | greasers |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Greasers |
Origin of greaser
From grease + -er. Applied to mechanics because they frequently become greasy during the course of their work. Applied to toughs because they frequently greased their hair, and, like greaseball, to Italians for the same reason. Applied to Mexicans because, at the time the phrase originated, they commonly worked greasing the axles of carts.
Americanized spelling of German Griesser.
Words formed from greaser
Words that rhyme with greaser
Questions about greaser
- What does greaser mean?
- Greaser means someone or something that greases (applies grease).
- What is greaser in Tamil?
- Greaser in Tamil is கொழுப்புச்செலுத்தி. See Greaser meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use greaser in a sentence?
- ... incidentally, our correspondent tells of a West Indian who applied for a job at Kings Cross as motion greaser - but with no idea of what he would have to grease and why.
- What part of speech is greaser?
- Greaser can be a noun or a proper noun.
- What is the plural of greaser?
- The plural of greaser is greasers.
Words near greaser in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: greaser (page history and authors); Greaser (page history and authors); greaser (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-greaser.ogg.
Cite this entry: “greaser.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/greaser. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.