lout
1 Americannoun
-
louts
plural
verb (used with object)
verb (used with or without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lout1
First recorded in 1540–50; perhaps special use of lout 2
Origin of lout2
1250–1300; Middle English louten, Old English lūtan; cognate with Old Norse lūta; akin to little
Explanation
A lout is a clumsy, awkward oaf. If you want to insult the person who just stepped on your toes and belched, say, "Watch where you're going, you lout!" Lout originally meant a bumbling, awkward fellow, both annoying and pitiful. But if you call someone a lout today, you're also implying that he's not only stupid and clumsy, but that he's no good. Lout is almost never used for women, because the word has an implication of being bad to women — not abusive so much as selfish. If everyone thinks your boyfriend is a lowdown, disgusting lout, you might want to try dating someone else.
Vocabulary lists containing lout
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Easter, 1916" by W.B. Yeats
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"The Odyssey" by Homer (Part One)
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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.
See Examples For:
"It's possible that their lout of a client insisted that the lawyers waste their meeting with general grievances about prosecutorial misconduct that already have been rejected by the courts," tweeted former U.S.
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2023
At light speed, the action zips to Siberia, where it momentarily bogs down in an extended dance-off between a bald and shirtless Russian lout and Sonic and Tails.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2022
They’ll go on about how he was an ass, a lush, a lout, and — this is a word used both loadedly and lovingly — a prophet.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 15, 2021
Hawke took this foul-tempered lout and turned him into the not-so-better half of a tough but surprisingly tender love story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2019
“Good. I’ve felt a bit invisible with that hulking lout showing off these past few days.”
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
Like yours, there were good moments and bad, great bosses and real louts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2020
You might, though, have a moment of doubt when she goes on to describe one of 17th-century London’s notorious menaces, a group of upper-class louts who took their name from a Latin poem by Virgil.
From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2018
A 2010 Vanity Fair reminiscence by James Verini wrote: “They call Ames and Taibbi, singly or in combination, children, louts, misogynists, madmen, pigs, hypocrites, anarchists, fascists, racists, and fiends.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 15, 2017
These louts are gonna have to watch this sometime.
From The New Yorker ● May 29, 2014
Juliet scowled—something else that the local louts found very endearing.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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.
