couch surfing
Americannoun
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the practice of staying as a guest in the homes of friends or acquaintances while traveling or when lacking permanent housing, usually with hosts providing limited accommodations such as a couch or other informal sleeping arrangement.
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the act or practice of sitting on a couch or sofa and watching TV, especially while switching from channel to channel.
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 he reached adulthood, Daily moved around the US, spending six months in Texas with his grandmother, and six months with his father, before falling into couch surfing.
From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026
Nine months after the fire, Comey is still couch surfing and his parents are living with a relative.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 15, 2025
By the time Lee learned about the Foster Youth to Independence program through her social worker, she said she was couch surfing with friends, which the U.S.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 4, 2024
When Uribe was in New York, the struggle was constant — even when he started gaining traction with the brand, he was couch surfing and struggling to make ends meet.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 11, 2023
He’d spent most of the last month with Zooey or couch surfing at various friends’ houses, but now that he was back home, he seemed hell-bent on making up for lost time.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
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.
