womanizer

American  

[woom-uh-nahy-zer] / ˈwʊm əˌnaɪ zər /

especially British, womaniser

noun

• womanizers
  plural

1. a philanderer.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• womanizers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of womanizer

First recorded in 1920–25; womanize + -er ¹

Explanation

If you've ever known a man who can't keep his eyes off every single woman who walks by, you can call him a womanizer — especially if he's constantly handing out his phone number. A womanizer is a man who always seems to have a new girlfriend, and who has no hesitation about starting up a new relationship before he's ended the last one. Usually, these relationships are sexual and don't last long. The noun womanizer comes from the verb womanize, which originally meant "to make effeminate." By the late 1800s, the meaning shifted to mean "to chase women."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

womanizer womanizers

The inclusion of a clone of Mahatma Gandhi, depicted as a party animal and a womanizer, led to protests and hunger strikes, ultimately getting the plug pulled on the show.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024

It feels like an amusingly counterintuitive rendering of the famously macho womanizer, until we recall that Berlusconi was a cruise ship crooner in the 1960s; in Torkia’s rendering, he still is.

From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023

Don Draper was as charming as the ads he wrote, but he was a chronic womanizer, a lousy dad and a subpar boss.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2021

Suppose, 50 years hence, the consensus of the moment is that Martin Luther King Jr. was a womanizer and a misogynist?

From Washington Times ● Sep. 30, 2020

Oskar Schindler has been called many names: scoundrel, womanizer, war profiteer, drunk.

From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson

She is also pitied because of her impulsive marriage to Vadinho, one of the great gamblers and womanizers in all Brazil.

From Time Magazine Archive