kibitzer
Americannoun
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a spectator at a card game who looks at the players' cards over their shoulders, especially one who gives unsolicited advice.
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a giver of uninvited or unwanted advice.
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a person who jokes, chitchats, or makes wisecracks, especially while others are trying to work or to discuss something seriously.
Etymology
Origin of kibitzer
First recorded in 1925–30; from Yiddish kibitser; see origin at kibitz, -er 1
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.
She may be quiet and a girl of slender means but, internally, she’s a kibitzer.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2020
“I found him to be a kibitzer, who liked to joke around with the guys, but had no serious interest in pursuing ideas and arguments,” Pinker said.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2019
He’s also a grade-A kibitzer, a gregarious character, whose chatty and self-effacing wit bespeaks his Queens upbringing and Eastern European-Jewish heritage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2016
This means a president, like a candidate, must be highly skeptical of the kibitzer.
From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2012
Do you really think that we found your outpost on our own, oh Bernibus the ‘deputy kibitzer’?
From The Revolutions of Time by Jonathan Dunn
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.
