Showing results for gaydar. Search instead for gaydar's.

gaydar

American

[gey-dahr] / ˈgeɪ dɑr /

noun

Informal.

a person's purported intuitive or sensing ability to identify gay people.

gaydar British

/ ˈɡeɪdɑː /

noun

informal the supposed ability of a homosexual person to recognize whether another person is homosexual

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of gaydar

First recorded in 1980–85; gay ( def. ) + (ra)dar ( 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.

Even though my gaydar immediately found the queers in the room.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2024

"If you go through it, for many of us, it will tweak our gaydar looking at those 1950s issues - because there seems to be more bare-chested men than you'd expect," says Prof Bengry.

From BBC • Jun. 2, 2021

"My gaydar even doesn't work that well in the present, let alone retroactively," he said.

From Salon • Jun. 17, 2019

Anthony C.: Dear Mr O’Connor, I’ve developed a prototype gaydar device.

From MSNBC • Apr. 2, 2015

Maybe I already show up on gaydar, even though I don’t clearly show up on my own.

From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023