wowser

[ wou-zer ]

nounAustralia and New Zealand.
  1. an excessively puritanical person.

Origin of wowser

1
First recorded in 1895–1900; origin uncertain

Words Nearby wowser

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use wowser in a sentence

  • He's a real wowser at one class of knowledge, and doesn't know spit about the others.

    Damned If You Don't | Gordon Randall Garrett
  • Oxford has made Ginger into a cock-eyed wowser, and Cambridge has turned Beefy into a base-ball looney.

    John Brown | Captain R. W. Campbell

British Dictionary definitions for wowser

wowser

/ (ˈwaʊzə) /


nounAustralian and NZ slang
  1. a fanatically puritanical person

  2. a teetotaller

Origin of wowser

1
C20: from English dialect wow to whine, complain

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012