loser
Americannoun
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a person, team, nation, etc., that loses.
The visiting team was the loser in the series.
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Informal.
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a person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor or, especially, a felony.
a two-time loser.
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a person who has failed at a particular activity.
a loser at marriage.
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someone or something that is marked by consistently or thoroughly bad quality, performance, etc. (opposed to winner).
Don't bother to see that film, it's a real loser.
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Slang. a misfit, especially someone who has never or seldom been successful at a job, personal relationship, etc.
noun
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a person or thing that loses
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a person or thing that seems destined to be taken advantage of, fail, etc
a born loser
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bridge a card that will not take a trick
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of loser
Explanation
A loser is the team or person that did not win or succeed. In pond hockey, the loser has to hose down the ice to make it smooth again. You may have heard loser used to insult someone who has not had a lot of success in life, someone who might not have many friends. This mean slang took root in the 1950s but it wasn't until the 1990s that kids who loved indie rock reclaimed it as an anti-hero badge of honor, wearing t-shirts with "Loser" written in huge letters across the front. This ironic gesture was meant to show the jocks who the real cool kids were.
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:
The loser of Humphrey’s Executor was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and 15 presidents of both parties operated under its constraint.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Shares have gone from AI loser to winner and back again as investors fret about higher interest rates and hyperscalers’ aggressive AI spending plans.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Gill, also a lucky loser, had been a late replacement for defending men's champion Taylor Fritz, who withdrew in order to give himself the "best chance of being 100%" for Wimbledon after injury issues.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
As for stocks, he said the market seems to be saying that it wants to dump anything that looks like an AI loser, along with some “babies with the bathwater,” and it doesn’t care.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026
Jace isn’t wearing a costume, and I worry that means he’ll think I’m a big loser for dressing up.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
Common mistakes are to sell winners too soon and keep losers for too long.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Anger over soaring electricity bills is separating winning utility stocks from the losers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
And while the Trumps have made out well, investors in some ventures have wound up big losers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Any such reforms would take time, and bring winners and losers.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
We play full court, five- on-five, “winners stay on, losers sit.”
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
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.
