Dictionary

beachcomber en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbit͡ʃˌkoʊmɚ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. Proto-Germanic *bakiz Proto-West Germanic *baki Old English bæċ Middle English bache English beach English comber English beachcomber From beach + comber.

Meanings

1. A seaman who is not prepared to work but hangs around port areas living off the charity of others.
   • The society of beach-combers always repays the small pains you need be at to enjoy it. They are easy of approach and affable in conversation. 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 46”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
2. Any loafer around a waterfront.
3. A person who collects marine salvage at the coast.
   • Now and again a wreck was to be seen, or a vessel left lonely and sad on a reef, her rigging dismantled and only waiting for beachcombers to come and break her up for the sake of her timber and old iron. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 35:
4. A long rolling wave of the sea.

Forms

Descendants

bietser (scrounger)

Translations (6)

fr batteur de grève (seaman who hangs around port areas living off the charity of others) · de Strandräuber (seaman who hangs around port areas living off the charity of others) · nl strandjutter (person who collectes marine salvage at the coast) · gv ronseyder traie (loafer around a waterfront) · fi rantapummi (loafer around a waterfront) · de Strandfaulenzer (loafer around a waterfront)