loser
Americannoun
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losers
plural
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a person, team, nation, etc., that loses.
The visiting team was the loser in the series.
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Informal.
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a person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor or, especially, a felony.
a two-time loser.
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a person who has failed at a particular activity.
a loser at marriage.
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someone or something that is marked by consistently or thoroughly bad quality, performance, etc. (opposed to winner).
Don't bother to see that film, it's a real loser.
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Slang. a misfit, especially someone who has never or seldom been successful at a job, personal relationship, etc.
noun
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a person or thing that loses
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a person or thing that seems destined to be taken advantage of, fail, etc
a born loser
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bridge a card that will not take a trick
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of loser
Explanation
A loser is the team or person that did not win or succeed. In pond hockey, the loser has to hose down the ice to make it smooth again. You may have heard loser used to insult someone who has not had a lot of success in life, someone who might not have many friends. This mean slang took root in the 1950s but it wasn't until the 1990s that kids who loved indie rock reclaimed it as an anti-hero badge of honor, wearing t-shirts with "Loser" written in huge letters across the front. This ironic gesture was meant to show the jocks who the real cool kids were.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In less than two weeks, he has turned around the entire Dodger team, transforming it from a likely first-round playoff loser to arguably a World Series favorite.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
For the loser, he thinks the road may end in Cardiff.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Will I feel more like a winner, less like a loser?
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
It only shows that Wall Street did not treat every large AI spender as a loser.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
I have to fake a smile now, because what kind of loser would I be if I didn’t mean to get chosen?
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
But the winners and losers still need to be sorted.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
For years, active investors blamed their underperformance on the unusually high correlation among stocks, which can make it hard to sort winners from losers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
If City were the winners, then there had to be losers.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
But in recent years, the shows have become money losers and the network TV business — faced with a decline in viewers that is squeezing profits — are cutting them loose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
The girls at the pool table squealed with delight, razzing the losers.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
