geezer
Americannoun
-
geezers
plural
noun
Usage
What does geezer mean? Geezer is a mildly negative slang term for a man, especially an older man who’s considered odd in some way. In American slang, geezer almost always refers to an older man and is especially used in the phrase old geezer. In British slang, geezer just refers to any man. In both cases, though, the term is used in a mildly insulting, dismissive way. Example: There’s always some old geezer standing on that street corner handing out weird pamphlets.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of geezer
1880–85; variant of guiser ( see guise (v.), -er 1 ), representing dial. pronunciation
Explanation
A geezer is an old person. It might hurt your grandfather's feelings if you refer to him as a geezer, since he thinks of himself as being youthful. Use the word geezer when you need an informal, slightly rude word for "wacky old man." If you're in the UK, you can call any man, whatever age he is, a geezer, but in the US it's specifically an old guy. The root of geezer is the now-obsolete Cockney word guiser, which means "mummer," or "masked mime or actor.
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:
Meanwhile, it’s happened: Waters herself is beginning to feel like a pickleball geezer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
This will not become a geezer gunslinger movie à la Liam Neeson.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
"Father Time is undefeated. Trump is not in any shape to stand out there in the cold," he wrote on X. "Got to give the old geezer credit for understanding his limitations."
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2025
"He can tweak you emotionally in the scenes, he's got the macro and the micro, but most importantly he's a lovely geezer."
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2023
Nick pushed them back toward the old geezer, shaking his head.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
The absence of late drummer Charlie Watts is felt, but Jagger and Richards prove that old geezers can still rock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
The CGL geezers don’t even want to imagine Knueppel returning to punish them on the middle-school courts of Wisconsin again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
"It's not just geezers, you see lots of girls wearing them nowadays and older people."
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2023
There’s something for the geezers too: The party hasn’t started until Grandpa shows off his moves to The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
Given the photo of the board members on the synagogue’s anniversary pamphlet I’d obtained, I doubted if half the old geezers on the board were still drawing air.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
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.
