flâneur
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of flâneur
First recorded in 1850–55; from French: literally, “loafer, idler, man about town,” equivalent to flân-, stem of flâner “to waste time” + -eur ( def. ); cf. flânerie ( def. )
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:
Is the dog a fellow flâneur in the Weimar city, a mirror of its owner, or perhaps his alter ego?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Their work has been seen as reflecting their vastly different personas—Manet the dashing, witty, impetuous flâneur; Morisot the reserved, intelligent and exceedingly decorous bourgeoise—through the lens of their separate worlds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025
Kazin’s younger self is a latter-day flâneur — observing the familiar neighborhood with the impartiality of an outsider as he walked its streets.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2021
Inspired by Jean Rhys, George Sand and Virginia Woolf, Elkin rejects the typically male figure of the flâneur.
From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2018
That he profited by his loitering experience is plain enough afterward, but thus far there is little to prophesy that Irving would be anything more in life than a charming flâneur.
From Washington Irving by Warner, Charles Dudley
Visitors to the exhibition become flâneurs themselves as they meander through 11 multimedia spaces of dreams and fantasies.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2015
It’s not surprising that these 21st-century flâneurs are different creatures from their 19th-century predecessors.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2013
The 21st century flâneurs at the center of these novels are dislocated and wayward.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2013
People who inhabit through motion include desert-dwellers, obliged to move with herds in search of feeding grounds and markets, and 19th-century flâneurs, gentleman strollers in search of fascination.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 11, 2012
Here was a man who could have enjoyed art among the artists, who could have been the wittiest of all the flâneurs; who could have made epigrams like diamonds and drunk music like wine.
From George Bernard Shaw by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
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.
