loser

plural losers

1. A person who loses; one who fails to win or thrive.

   He was always a good loser.

   2 more examples

   In a two-horse race there is always one winner and one loser.

   The victors will exact vindictive penalties and the losers of course will undertake to pay, but none of them realizes that money is going to do the most extraordinary things to them when they begin upon that.

   1933 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Introduction: The Dream Book of Dr. Philip Raven”, in The Shape of Things to Come, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 5

   Antonyms: winner

2. Something of poor quality.
3. A person who is frequently unsuccessful in life.

   That guy is a born loser!

   1 more example

   I'm a constant loser in love.

   Synonyms: failure

4. derogatoryA contemptible or unfashionable person.

   1 more example

   Mike didn't work but insisted that Jewell have a job. He would stay home and do whatever — smoke pot, screw around. He was a total loser, and she picked up the slack. That's around the time that Mom met her soon-to-be-next husband. He immediately moved in. He was a loser, too, with the same work ethic Mike had.

   2012, Frank Shamrock, Charles Fleming, “Fatherhood”, in Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter, Chicago Review Press, →ISBN, page 203

   Synonyms: crumb, losel, louse, absolute zero, assbucket, asswipe, badling, blatherskite

5. One who or that which loses something, such as extra weight, car keys, etc.

   You're counting on this insurance company to pay you a check many years in the future. But for some companies, disability coverage has been a money loser.

   2009, Jane Bryant Quinn, Making the Most of Your Money Now

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   Another way to speed search (in general) is to order or bias the hypothesis space based on some heuristic. Suppose you are a habitual car key loser and that you keep track of where your keys turn up after each search.

   1999, Larry Medsker, Lakhmi C. Jain, Recurrent Neural Networks: Design and Applications, →ISBN, page 192

   But a West German reporting a lost passport in East Berlin during the years of the Wall was treated to a criminal investigation, with the passport loser as the potential criminal.

   2004, Marianna S. Katona, Tales from the Berlin Wall: Recollections of Frequent Crossings, →ISBN

   You have to think of yourself as an already amazing person who's hiding behind extra weight—a superhero in a disguise. If you follow the program, […] change the message from “I'm a big loser” to “I'm a big weight loser.”

   2010, Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost, One Byte at a Time, →ISBN, page 109

6. A losing proposition, one that is likely to lose or already has lost (such as a losing bet or, analogously, a predictably fruitless task or errand).

   In terms of betting on outcomes, Mars is a clear loser.

   2021 December 17, Eric Ralph, “SpaceX to replicate Starbase, build multiple Starship launch pads in Florida”, in Teslarati, retrieved 07 Aug 2022

   2 more examples

   A new Guard came to town and decided to flex his muscles with George. We could have told him that he was on a loser but bright young men, then as now, know it all.

   1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 58

   Hardway bets are losers if they are rolled in any other combination—called "soft" or "easy" numbers. For instance, a Hardway bet on a 4 is a loser if the dice show as 3 and 1. Betting on a Hard 8 is a loser if the dice are rolled as a 5 and 3, or a 6 and 2. Naturally, if the 7 is rolled before the Hardway number shows, the bet is also a loser.

   2001, Peter Svoboda, Beating the Casinos at Their Own Game, Square One Publishers, →ISBN, page 57

7. slangA person convicted of a crime, especially more than once.

   He's a three-time loser doing twenty years.

plural Losers

1. A surname from German.