boarder
Americannoun
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boarders
plural
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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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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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Commonly Confused Words, List 3
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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:
George will now become a boarder, at one of the Eton's 25 boarding houses.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
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
A kayaker helped one paddle boarder to shore, and a boater helped another.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 20, 2024
“Worst thing in the world to get rid of,” she said, and told us about the epidemic at the girls’ school in Kinvara when she was a boarder.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
Financial lessons from the nation’s history: embrace risks, don’t be afraid of debt, take in boarders if things get tight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Financial lessons from the nation’s history as the U.S. reaches 250 years: take risks, don’t be afraid of debt, take in boarders if things get tight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
The quarantine now boarders El Cajon, Proctor Valley, Lemon Grove and McGinty Mountain— with a total of 76 square miles of San Diego County under quarantine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
His non-teaching role involved keeping an eye on boarders, and enforcing discipline.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2026
Helda was living with another German family in the Bronx, sharing a bedroom with two other boarders five nights a week.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
