Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A tramp; a vagrant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as clocher.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A beggar or vagrant, especially in France.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from clocher, to limp, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *cloppicāre, from cloppus, lame person, alteration of Latin claudus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French clochard.

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Examples

  • There was a clochard sitting on a milk crate in the alley behind the hotel.

    Babylon Nights Daniel Depp 2010

  • And the ever-present clown, but this clown resembles a Parisian clochard/street person whose attitude does not evoke sympathy or empathy — just a sense of unease; not unlike the unease that is created by four men with two invisible trampolines separated by an enormous wall that they keep landing on top of, only to be airborne again in one direction or the other.

    Buzzine » Cirque Berzerk! 2009

  • A clochard was asleep on the far pavement under a bush, his grizzled gray head resting on his extended arm, totally oblivious to the spray steadily heading his way.

    The Hundred-Foot Journey Richard C. Morais 2008

  • A clochard was asleep on the far pavement under a bush, his grizzled gray head resting on his extended arm, totally oblivious to the spray steadily heading his way.

    The Hundred-Foot Journey Richard C. Morais 2008

  • A clochard was asleep on the far pavement under a bush, his grizzled gray head resting on his extended arm, totally oblivious to the spray steadily heading his way.

    The Hundred-Foot Journey Richard C. Morais 2008

  • Would we prefer that Emma Bovary didn't swallow the poison and instead became a clochard, cadging francs at the agricultural fair?

    July 2006 2006

  • A clochard was asleep on the far pavement under a bush, his grizzled gray head resting on his extended arm, totally oblivious to the spray steadily heading his way.

    The Hundred-Foot Journey Richard C. Morais 2008

  • Isn't there something revolting about catering to the imagined needs of a tiny group of spoiled ladies, a Marie Antoinette–ish situation that reached its apotheosis when John Galliano showed his infamous clochard collection—the word means bum or hobo in French, and the tattered gowns, hand-stenciled to look filthy, trailed pots, pans, and other refuse—at the 1997 Dior haute couture show?

    Art in the Parks 3: Nan Kempner's Clothing sfmike 2007

  • Isn't there something revolting about catering to the imagined needs of a tiny group of spoiled ladies, a Marie Antoinette–ish situation that reached its apotheosis when John Galliano showed his infamous clochard collection—the word means bum or hobo in French, and the tattered gowns, hand-stenciled to look filthy, trailed pots, pans, and other refuse—at the 1997 Dior haute couture show?

    Archive 2007-07-01 sfmike 2007

  • Franchement moi avec ma situation merdique, je comprends de plus en plus le nombre grandissant de depressif et de clochard et de clochard depressifs aussi.

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006

Comments

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  • A tramp or vagrant.

    August 7, 2007

  • In French, "Lady and the Tramp" is "La Belle et le Clochard"

    October 8, 2007

  • The dictionary gives two different pronunciations, cluh-sherd, and cluh-shar. Which is the preferred?

    October 9, 2007

  • Hard to say. I checked more than one dictionary, and some give "cluh-sherd" as the preferred pronunciation while others (including American Heritage) give "cluh-shar."

    October 9, 2007