prowler
Americannoun
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a person or animal that prowls.
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a person who goes stealthily about with some unlawful intention, as to commit a burglary or theft.
Etymology
Origin of prowler
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.
A grand jury exonerated her of murder, accepting her explanation that she’d mistaken Billy for a prowler who had been frequenting the area, sometimes raiding homeowners’ fridges.
From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2022
The prowler was dressed in sneakers, pants, a jacket and a baseball cap turned backward.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 19, 2022
They weren’t uniformly lucky on the album, which remains a polarizing listen that often finds Morrison adopting the demeanor of a cigarette-stained prowler who boasts and moans his way through simply written blues lyrics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2021
During the incident, Troyer, who is white, said he mistook the carrier, 24-year-old Sedrick Altheimer, for a prowler and called a police-only emergency dispatch hotline to report that Altheimer was threatening to kill him.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2021
He tried to think of what animal, what night prowler, she reminded him.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
