boarder
Americannoun
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a person, especially a lodger, who is supplied with regular meals.
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a member of a boarding party.
noun
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a pupil who lives at school during term time
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a child who lives away from its parents and is cared for by a person or organization receiving payment
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another word for lodger
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a person who boards a ship, esp one who forces his way aboard in an attack
stand by to repel boarders
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informal a person who takes part in sailboarding or snowboarding
Etymology
Origin of boarder
Explanation
A boarder is someone who rents a room in someone's house. It can also be a student who lives and studies away from home at a boarding school. There are two main meanings of boarder, but they both involve staying somewhere away from home. A boarding school is a private school where students live as well as study. Those students are called boarders. Also, if someone rents a room of their house to guests, the guests are boarders. Holden Caulfield, the main character of "Catcher in the Rye," was a boarder; that is, until he got thrown out of Pencey Prep.
Vocabulary lists containing boarder
Commonly Confused Words, List 1
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The Circuit
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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
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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.
After learning the basics of tap dancing from a boarder in the house where he was living, he caught the eye of more experienced tappers.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 20, 2026
“I was so traumatized,” Morrow, a school bus driver and dog boarder, said in an interview.
From Salon • Apr. 15, 2026
The British boarder has had a turbulent build-up to the Games, which included tearing the medial collateral ligament in her right knee in April.
From BBC • Aug. 1, 2024
A third paddle boarder was about 300 feet offshore when Seattle fire crews arrived, according to spokesperson Kaila Lafferty.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 20, 2024
Like most of the other teachers who came from out of town, I became a boarder in another person’s home.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
Definitions 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.
