geezer

From guiser. Compare also German Low German Kieser (“an obstinate person; brute; savage”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡizɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡiːzə/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːzə(ɹ)
• Homophones: geyser, Giza (in some dialects)

geezer (plural geezers)

1. (informal, chiefly Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, dated in the US) A male person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:man

   • 1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 19, in Right Ho, Jeeves:

     You are a silly young geezer.

2. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a wide boy.

   Synonyms: spiv, wide boy

   • 2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:

     Geezers need excitement / If their lives don't provide 'em this, they incite violence / Common sense, simple common sense

   • 2003, Carlton Leach, Muscle, John Blake Publishing, →ISBN:

     He turned out to be a proper geezer who was willing to listen to my proposition that if he took the door at the Ministry, I would pay him £400 a month to mark my cards.

   • 2009, Dreda Say Mitchell, Geezer Girls, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     He was a bit of a geezer. Used to box with the Krays when he was a young 'un.

   • 2013, Charlotte Ward, Why Am I Always the One Before 'The One'?, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     When I'd first met Adam, at work when we were both 23, the fact that he seemed a little rough around the edges appealed to me. He was a bit of a geezer, a joker, one of the lads.

3. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Term of address for a male.

   Synonyms: mate; see also Thesaurus:friend

   Hi, geezer, you alright?

4. (informal, chiefly Canada, US, sometimes mildly derogatory) An old person, usually a male, typically a cranky old man.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:old man

   • 1885, Corin, The Truth about the Stage:

     In the right-hand division lay the two old geezers, as Sandy styled the landlord and his wife.

   • 2000, Moira McDonald, "Outtakes," Seattle Times, 25 Aug. (retrieved 6 Sep. 2008):

     The technical term for a female geezer is "old broad," but this is irrelevant, as nobody in Hollywood makes films about women over 55.

   • 2014, The Geezer Gallery, "," (retrieved 31 Jan 2014):

     Why Geezer? Why would a fine arts gallery choose a name that conjures images of a grumpy old guy sitting on the front porch hollering, “get off my lawn”?

5. (South Africa) Alternative form of geyser (“domestic water boiler”)
6. (archaic, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Wife; old woman.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:wife, Thesaurus:old woman

   • 1882, J. F. Mitchell, Jimmy Johnson's Holiday:

     He'd flirt and boat, but never wrote / A note to his old geezer.

   • 1886, Her Mother's Got the Hump:

     This frizzle-headed old geezer had a chin on her as rough well, as rough as her family, and they're rough 'uns.

• geezerdom
• geezerish
• geezery

• greeze