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.
Nine months after the fire, Comey is still couch surfing and his parents are living with a relative.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 15, 2025
He once got by with couch surfing or working minimum-wage jobs to pay rent, but with Halifax’s skyrocketing housing costs, he can no longer afford a place to live.
From BBC • Nov. 25, 2024
She told her family she was couch surfing in Oregon and refused to come home.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2023
“The odds are, even if you don’t know they’re couch surfing or living in an unsafe situation, everyone here knows someone dealing with this,” Chen said.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 4, 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.
