losel
UK/ˈləʊzəl/US/ˈloʊzəl/
losel noun: a worthless or despicable person, scoundrel.
Noun
losel (plural losels)
- A worthless or despicable person, scoundrel.
- Dowtles such losels
Make the churche to be
In smale auctoryte; […]c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 138–140 - The whiles a losell wandring by the way, / One that to bountie neuer cast his mind, / Ne thought of honour euer did assay […].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- lidderon
- Dowtles such losels
Adjective
losel (comparative more losel, superlative most losel)
Examples of losel in a sentence
- And, losel, thou art worthy to be hang'd.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
- Multiform ragged losels, runaway apprentices, starved weavers, thievish valets […]1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “III, The One Institution”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and...
- Not since I backed a horse have I been pressed so hard; peril of life, jeopardy of land and livelihood, and to sum up, all these losels in the wood to hunt me down.1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Chapter 7, The Hooded Face”, in The Black Arrow:
- Lots of folk live on their wits: / Lecturers, lispers, / Losels, loblolly-men, louts— / They don't end up as paupers; […]1954, Philip Larkin, Toads:
Synonyms of losel
Forms of losel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | losels |
| alternative form | lozel |
| alternative form | lozell |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more losel |
| superlative | most losel |
Origin of losel
From Middle English losel (also lorel), from *losen, loren, past participle of lesen (“to lose”), equivalent to lose + -le.
Words formed from losel
- loselism
- loselry
Questions about losel
- What does losel mean?
- Losel means a worthless or despicable person, scoundrel.
- How do you use losel in a sentence?
- And, losel, thou art worthy to be hang'd.
- What part of speech is losel?
- Losel can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce losel?
- Losel is pronounced /ˈləʊzəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of losel?
- The plural of losel is losels.
Words near losel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: losel (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:
Cite this entry: “losel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/losel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.