geezer

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

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

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

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

geezer (plural geezers)

1. (informal, chiefly British, Ireland, Commonwealth, 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.

   • 2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane, spoken by Nathan (Simon Manyonda):

     See the hoverboard-riding geezer? This close to payin' a G for a shot of my cousin Calvin's molars.

2. (UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, 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, Commonwealth, 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 August 25, Moira McDonald, “Outtakes”, in Seattle Times, retrieved 6 September 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, (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, retrieved 31 January 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. (archaic, British, Ireland, Commonwealth, 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.

• geezer teaser
• geezerdom
• geezerish
• geezery

See geyser.

geezer (plural geezers)

1. (South Africa) Alternative form of geyser (“domestic water boiler”).

• greeze