Meanings
plural lubbers
- archaicA clumsy or lazy person.
[T]hree of the boys, of whom Mr. Hector was sometimes one, used to come in the morning as his humble attendants, and carry him [Johnson] to school. […] The purfly, sand-blind lubber and blubber, with his open mouth, and face of bruised honeycomb; yet already dominant, imperial, irresistible!
1832 May, Thomas Carlyle, “[James] Boswell’s Life of [Samuel] Johnson”, in R[alph] W[aldo] E[merson], editor, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: […], volume III, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, published 1839, →OCLC, page 147Synonyms: alcatote, auf, botcher, bumbler, bungler, blunderer, blunderhead, butterfingers
- nauticalAn inexperienced or novice sailor; a landlubber.
- Southern USAn eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea microptera).
- South AsiaAlteration of rubber.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA clumsy or lazy person.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Frenchlobeor“swindler”
- Englishlubber
From Middle English, perhaps from Old French lobeor (“swindler”), from Old French lober to mock, to jeer, or of Scandinavian origin, compare dialectal Swedish lubber. The grasshopper was likely so called after sense 1 (“a clumsy or lazy person”).
More words from Old French
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
lubber. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lubber
“lubber.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lubber. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lubber,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lubber.
Source: lubber on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.