geezer

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

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡizɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡiːzə/
• Rhymes: -iːzə(ɹ)
• Homophones: geyser, Giza (in some dialects)

geezer (plural geezers)

1. (informal, chiefly Britain, dated in US) A male person.
   • 1922, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 19, in Right Ho, Jeeves:

     You are a silly young geezer.

2. (Britain, chiefly Cockney, slang) Someone affable but morally dubious; a wide boy.
   • 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. (Britain, slang) Informal address to a male.

   Hi geezer, you alright?

4. (informal, chiefly US, sometimes mildly derogatory) An old person, usually a male, typically a cranky 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. (Britain) A device for boiling water for such domestic uses as heating or washing; a boiler. The normal spelling is water geyser.
6. (archaic, Britain, slang) Wife; 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.

• (male person): See Thesaurus:man
• (affable but morally dubious person): spiv, wide boy
• (old man): See Thesaurus:old man
• (old woman): See Thesaurus:old woman
• (informal address): See Thesaurus:friend
• (wife): See Thesaurus:wife

• geezerdom
• geezery

• greeze