stargazer
Americannoun
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a person who stargazes, as an astronomer or astrologer.
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a daydreamer.
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an impractical idealist.
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any of several marine fishes of the family Uranoscopidae, having the eyes at the top of the head.
Etymology
Origin of stargazer
First recorded in 1550–60; star + gazer ( def. )
Explanation
A stargazer is a trained or amateur astronomer. Your hobby of peering at the planets through a telescope makes you a stargazer! Having a degree in astronomy makes someone a stargazer, but people who recline outdoors on a summer night to watch the stars overhead can also describe themselves this way. The word, originally hyphenated, is formed from star and gazer, "someone who looks (or gazes) at something for a long time." Astrologers are also referred to as stargazers, since they observe the positions of the planets and stars in order to predict the future.
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.
Atlantic Stargazer fish, whose Latin name is Uranoscopus scaber, are so called because their eyes stick upwards.
From BBC • Aug. 30, 2023
Steinhardt and his wife paid $1.5 million for the Stargazer in 1993.
From Reuters • Mar. 8, 2023
"You haven't been without him at all," Stargazer argued.
From Salon • Jan. 3, 2021
But soon thereafter, he’s captured by Project Stargazer, a secretive government organization created to study Predators since they began visiting Earth in 1987.
From The Verge • Sep. 8, 2018
“Remember when we were on the Stargazer and I saw something bright but I couldn’t tell what it was?”
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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.
