landlubber
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of landlubber
Explanation
If you've never set foot on any kind of boat, you're a landlubber, someone who's either brand new to sailing or is totally unfamiliar with it. The word landlubber comes from the obsolete lubber, which isn't a funny way to say "lover," but a term that evolved from meaning "clumsy oaf" to "inexperienced seaman." Back in the 15th century, lubber was also used as a verb, to mean "sail badly." These days, a new, inexperienced crew member on a schooner might be called a landlubber. If your brother gets queasy on a short ferry ride, feel free to call him a landlubber too.
Vocabulary lists containing landlubber
Life of Pi
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A Night to Remember
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The Golden Compass
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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.
The many pleasures of this exuberant memoir for the landlubber include learning about the world of competitive sailing, even if the information comes with less-enjoyable updates about the author’s bowel movements.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
As an Army veteran, a backpacker and a landlubber, sailing had longed piqued my interest, but it seemed inaccessible.
From Seattle Times ● May 11, 2023
Before moving from Brooklyn to Sydney in 2017 to open The New York Times’s Australia bureau, I was a dutiful landlubber.
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2021
Geldof, by contrast, has the air of a landlubber, happier by far on a stage that does not sway under his feet.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 23, 2016
As for the sea, it looked rough, but to a landlubber the sea is always impressive and forbidding, beautiful and dangerous.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
