flâneur
Americannoun
-
flâneurs
plural
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
In 1966, even as Ruscha rolled down the boulevard clicking his camera like an old-time flâneur, those convulsions were rocking the Sunset Strip.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 7, 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
I said unexpected things," said the flâneur reprovingly, "such as—well, such as a screw-driver for eye-glasses—most useful.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, September 5, 1917 by Various
We have watched a restless day of rest in the park of the title, where an assortment of flâneurs and poseurs have become steadily more fractious and discordant.
From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2017
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
The men and women whom I met in the street escape description; the flâneurs of the Unter den Linden are exactly like the flâneurs of the Boulevard des Italiens.
From Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 5 Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland, Part 1 by Francis W. (Francis Whiting) Halsey
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
