Meanings
plural gadabouts
- A person who restlessly moves from place to place, seeking amusement or the companionship of others.
I was among the last to board the ferry. ... Chilean tourists, Uruguayan doctors, old Argentine gadabouts of high-society heritage, ladies wearing strident perfumes, families, all of them in those same light blue sneakers, like Smurfs.
2021, Pedro Mairal, chapter 11, in The Woman from Uruguay, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBNSynonyms: social butterfly
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA person who restlessly moves from place to place, seeking amusement or the companionship of others.
Origin
Translations
Irish rásaí
- rásaíperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
Italian saltafossi
- saltafossiperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
Māori tourepa, tou tīrairaka
- tourepaperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
- tou tīrairakaperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
Scottish Gaelic galbh, galbhag
- galbhperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
- galbhagperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
- maol-ruanaidhperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
- fear cèilidheachperson who restlessly moves from place to place seeking amusement or the companionship of others
Cite this entry
gadabout. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gadabout
“gadabout.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gadabout. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gadabout,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gadabout.
Source: gadabout on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.