Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who scavenges along beaches or in wharf areas.
- noun A seaside vacationer.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A long wave rolling in from the ocean. Bartlett. [U. S.]
- noun A seafaring man, generally of vagrant and drunken habits, who idles about the wharves of seaports: used most frequently in countries bordering on the Pacific ocean.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- (Naut.) A vagrant seaman, usually of low character, who loiters about seaports, particularly on the shores and islands of the Pacific Ocean.
- a vagrant living on a beach.
- a person who searches along a beach for objects of value, such as lost objects or seashells.
- Amer., archaic A long, curling wave rolling in from the ocean. See
comber .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A
seaman who is not prepared towork but hangs aroundport areas living off thecharity of others. - noun Any
loafer around awaterfront .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a vagrant living on a beach
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Harris, the beachcomber, is searching for his descendants, to whom she would like to give her finds.
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Harris, the beachcomber, is searching for his descendants, to whom she would like to give her finds.
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So a new idea was born, sometimes called the "beachcomber express," in which the first ex-Africans were seashore dwellers who spread rapidly around the coast of the Indian Ocean, showing an unexpected skill at seafaring to reach Australia across a strait that was at least 40 miles wide.
Did Early Humans Ride the Waves to Australia? Matt Ridley 2012
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One of them was a runaway sailor, who had been living on the island several years (such being termed a beachcomber), a Portuguese, and six Kanakas, as the natives are called.
Peter Trawl The Adventures of a Whaler William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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Pay attention. dub the beachcomber: Big Kahuna, I haven't heard anything about Pinto or the other reliever whose name escapes me, that the cards picked up recently.
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I don't see it, which means TLR may announce next week his plans to audition Craig at the position next spring. dub the beachcomber: wave master, we have too many outfielders and the braves are looking for one. they have lots of pitching. do you see a match up? which card outfielder is most expendable and what caliber player could they bring? thanks joe
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Joe Strauss: LaRue's injury virtually demands a suspension for Cueto. dub the beachcomber: Joe, this won't be popular but the way I saw the brawl and the Cueto incident was that Cueto was backed up against the railing and panicked and began kicking.
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Joe Strauss: LaRue's injury virtually demands a suspension for Cueto. dub the beachcomber: Joe, this won't be popular but the way I saw the brawl and the Cueto incident was that Cueto was backed up against the railing and panicked and began kicking.
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After they are settling in, and Carey is recovering well, a "beachcomber", who reckons he is king of these islands, makes his appearance with a retinue of aborigines.
King o' the Beach A Tropic Tale George Manville Fenn 1870
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Although I read German -- desperately, like a beachcomber sifting sand on a bad day -- even I could make out the tone.
Jan Herman: The Mind Sashays Jan Herman 2011
whichbe commented on the word beachcomber
An unemployed, penniless pony that spends all day scavenging the beaches in search of food.
August 8, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word beachcomber
The psammophile relative of seahorses.
August 18, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word beachcomber
A name for a wave that rolls across a beach.
March 21, 2011