Word.ws English Dictionary

josser

/ˈd͡ʒɒsə(ɹ)/

josser noun: an outsider working in a circus.

Noun

josser (plural jossers)

  1. An outsider working in a circus.
    • Becoming a josser – an outsider who joins the circus – is probably one of the few dreams almost everyone has had.1999 May 20, Dea Birkett, “Books: In the world of exotic humans”, in The Independent
  2. (UK, informal) A man, especially one who seems foolish or simpleminded.
    • As I neither answered nor raised my eyes Mahony exclaimed again: 'I say . . . He's a queer old josser!'1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “An Encounter”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 30
    • A josser like myself from the backwoods of Canada would be making all sorts of bloomers.1925, Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys
  3. (Australia, informal) A clergyman.

Forms of josser

pluraljossers

Questions about josser

What does josser mean?
Josser means an outsider working in a circus.
What part of speech is josser?
Josser is a noun.
How do you pronounce josser?
Josser is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɒsə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of josser?
The plural of josser is jossers.

Words near josser in the dictionary

  1. Jossed
  2. Jossel
  3. Jossels
  4. Josselyn
  5. Josselyns
  6. josser
  7. jossers
  8. josses
  9. Jossing
  10. jossing-block
  11. jossing-blocks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: josser (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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Cite this entry: “josser.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/josser. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.