Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Losel
Los′el
,Noun.
One who loses by sloth or neglect; a worthless person; a lorel.
[Archaic]
Spenser.
One sad
losel
soils a name for aye. Byron.
Los′el
,Adj.
Wasteful; slothful.
Webster 1828 Edition
Losel
LOS'EL
,Noun.
Definition 2024
losel
losel
English
Alternative forms
Noun
losel (plural losels)
- (archaic) A worthless or despicable person.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iii:
- The whiles a losell wandring by the way, / One that to bountie neuer cast his mind, / Ne thought of honour euer did assay […].
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 4, chapter III, The One Institution
- These thousand straight-standing firm-set individuals, who shoulder arms, who march, wheel, advance, retreat; and are, for your behoof, a magazine charged with fiery death, in the most perfect condition of potential activity: few months ago, till the persuasive sergeant came, what were they? Multiform ragged losels, runaway apprentices, starved weavers, thievish valets […]
- 1954, Philip Larkin, Toads:
- Lots of folk live on their wits: / Lecturers,lispers, / Losels, loblolly-men, louts-- / They don't end up as paupers; […]
- 1964, Anthony Burgess, The Eve of St Venus:
- ‘Come on, you losel,’ he said to Spatchcock, ‘you privy calligrapher, you. You can carry his bottles. I’ll carry him.’
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iii:
Synonyms
Derived terms
- loselism
- loselry
Adjective
losel (comparative more losel, superlative most losel)