duffer
Informal.
a plodding, clumsy, incompetent person.
a person inept or inexperienced at a specific sport, as golf.
Northern and North Midland U.S. an old man, especially a dull or indecisive one.
Slang.
anything inferior, counterfeit, or useless.
a peddler, especially one who sells cheap, flashy goods.
Origin of duffer
1Words Nearby duffer
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use duffer in a sentence
Matt and Ross duffer, the twin creators and showrunners of the Netflix series, said it was Wolfhard’s “authenticity” that won him the role.
Finn Wolfhard doesn’t really want to be famous | Ashley Spencer | November 18, 2021 | Washington PostHe's a kindly old duffer; always doing things for folks and going out of his way to help a neighbor and things like that.
duffer is most inelegant (this from Julie in an assumption of stern reproach); I do not see wherever you picked up such a word.
Those Dale Girls | Frank Weston CarruthThere is no false modesty in the confidence with which I esteem myself a duffer, at fishing.
Angling Sketches | Andrew LangAnyway, you're behaving like a brick to them both, and Ronnie is a deuced old duffer for giving you up.
Katharine Frensham | Beatrice Harraden
Harry: I used to think Santa a pretty jolly old duffer, who made lots of sport for the infants, but I'm ready for a change myself.
Christmas Entertainments | Alice Maude Kellogg
British Dictionary definitions for duffer
/ (ˈdʌfə) /
informal a dull or incompetent person
slang something worthless
dialect a peddler or hawker
Australian slang
a mine that proves unproductive
a person who steals cattle
Origin of duffer
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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