Word.ws English Dictionary

lubber

/ˈlʌbə(ɹ)/

lubber noun: a clumsy or lazy person.

Noun

lubber (plural lubbers)

  1. (archaic) A clumsy or lazy person.
    • [T]hree of the boys, of whom Mr. Hector was sometimes one, used to come in the morning as his humble attendants, and carry him [Johnson] to school. […] The purfly, sand-blind lubber and blubber, with his open mouth, and face of bruised honeycomb; yet already dominant, imperial, irresistible!1832 May, Thomas Carlyle, “[James] Boswell’s Life of [Samuel] Johnson”, in R[alph] W[aldo] E[merson], editor, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: […], volume III, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and...
  2. An inexperienced or novice sailor; a landlubber.
  3. (Southern US) An eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea microptera).
  4. (South-Asia) Alteration of rubber.

lubber meaning in Tamil and Kannada

lubber in Tamil

சோம்பேறி, திறமையற்றவன்

lubber in Kannada

ಕೋಡಂಗಿ

Synonyms of lubber

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of lubber

Forms of lubber

plurallubbers

Origin of lubber

From Middle English, perhaps from Old French lobeor (“swindler”), from Old French lober to mock, to jeer, or of Scandinavian origin, compare dialectal Swedish lubber. The grasshopper was likely so called after sense 1 (“a clumsy or lazy person”).

Words formed from lubber

Phrases with lubber

Questions about lubber

What does lubber mean?
Lubber means a clumsy or lazy person.
What is lubber in Tamil?
Lubber in Tamil is சோம்பேறி, திறமையற்றவன். See Lubber meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lubber?
Lubber is a noun.
How do you pronounce lubber?
Lubber is pronounced /ˈlʌbə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of lubber?
The plural of lubber is lubbers.

Words near lubber in the dictionary

  1. Lubbe
  2. Lubbee
  3. Lubbees
  4. Lubben
  5. Lubbens
  6. lubber
  7. lubber fiend
  8. lubber fiends
  9. lubber line
  10. lubber lines
  11. lubber's hole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lubber (page history and authors); lubber (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lubber (Kannada 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.

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

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