hoser

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. One who operates a hose, e.g. a fire hose or a garden hose.
  2. One that hoses, i.e. hurts someone badly.
  3. A person (especially a farmer) who siphons gasoline out of a vehicle or piece of equipment.
  4. A person who hoses down a lake after a game of ice hockey, to return it to a smooth state.
  5. A clumsy, boorish person, especially an over-eating, beer-drinking man, or a man prone to petty infractions such as taking other people's food or drinks.
  6. A Canadian.

Pronunciation

/ˈhəʊ̯zə/ [ˈhəʊ̯zə] /ˈhɵʊ̯zə/ [ˈhɵ̞ʊ̯zə] /ˈhoʊ̯zɚ/ [ˈhoʊ̯zɚ] ~ [ˈhoʊ̯zɹ̩] /ˈhɔʊ̯zɚ/ [ˈhɔʊ̯zɚ] ~ [ˈhɔʊ̯zɹ̩] en-us-hoser.ogg

Word forms

hoser hosers

Etymology

From hose + -er. The Canadian senses originally derive from hose (“to siphon gasoline from automobile gas tanks”), in reference to farmers who siphoned gas from farming vehicles; they were later reinforced by use to describe the players on the losing side of a game of shinny or hockey, who were required to hose down the rink to return it to a smooth state, and ultimately popularized in the 1980s by a sketch on the television show Second City Television, in which Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas played Bob and Doug McKenzie, who used the term as an insult for each other.

Synonyms

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.