beachcomber
Americannoun
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a person who lives by gathering saleable articles of jetsam, refuse, etc., from beaches.
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a vagrant who lives on the seashore, especially a nonnative person living in such a way on a South Pacific island.
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a long wave rolling in from the ocean onto the beach.
noun
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a person who searches shore debris for anything of worth, esp a vagrant living on a beach
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(in British Columbia) a person who is paid for salvaging loose logs and returning them to logging companies
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a long high wave rolling onto a beach
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of beachcomber
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.
As an avid beachcomber, and someone who spends a lot of time in the ocean, I’ve encountered sargassum a few times.
From Slate • Jul. 16, 2023
Soon, moving along the rows of the periodic table like a beachcomber on a shore, Cade began to experiment with salts of rubidium, cerium and strontium.
From Nature • Aug. 25, 2019
Jennifer Moeller’s voluminous oyster-colored robe for Prospero wittily establishes him as a majestic beachcomber, and Christopher Akerlind’s subtle lighting scheme gives off a series of softly becoming, occasionally multi-hued, glows.
From Washington Post • Dec. 9, 2014
But 35 years ago, on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, I met another sort of beachcomber.
From BBC • Sep. 26, 2013
He reminded me of a beachcomber from Key West.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
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.
