wowser

[wou-zer]

noun

Australia and New Zealand.

1. an excessively puritanical person.

wowser

/ ˈwaʊzə /

noun

1. a fanatically puritanical person

2. a teetotaller

Word History and Origins

Origin of wowser¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; origin uncertain

Word History and Origins

Origin of wowser¹

C20: from English dialect wow to whine, complain

Example Sentences

Even if “Emancipation” turns out to be a critical wowser, will academy members be eager to vote for a Will Smith star vehicle when his actions will still cast a long shadow over next year’s show?

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This was, after all, the woman who, in her breakthrough role in the 2017 summer smash “Girls Trip,” introduced a wowser of a boudoir trick — it involves citrus — to the wider world.

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But it’s a wowser, and it’s about change.

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Green politicians, climate change activists, and even scientists have been painted as modern incarnations of a hated early-20th-century Australian archetype: the holier-than-thou, anti-gambling, anti-alcohol religious wowser.

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He was the "wowser," strangest beastie of them all.

Read more on Time Magazine Archive