exhibitionist

American  

[ek-suh-bish-uh-nist] / ˌɛk səˈbɪʃ ə nɪst /

noun

1. a person who behaves in ways intended to attract attention or display their powers, personality, etc.

2. Psychiatry. a person with the compulsions of exhibitionism.

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Usage

What does exhibitionist mean? In psychiatry, an exhibitionist is someone who has a compulsion to exhibit, or display, their genitals in public. Exhibitionist can also be used in nonclinical, everyday speech to refer to a show-off or a person who overshares.A popular slang term for exhibitionist is flasher, but keep in mind that a person diagnosed as an exhibitionist has a clinical disorder.Example: She called him an exhibitionist for his tendency to share too much personal information at parties.

Other Word Forms

• exhibitionistic adjective
• exhibitionistically adverb
• nonexhibitionistic adjective
• semiexhibitionist noun

Etymology

Origin of exhibitionist

First recorded in 1815–25; exhibition + -ist