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Lubber   /lˈəbər/   Listen
Lubber

noun
1.
An awkward stupid person.  Synonyms: clod, gawk, goon, lout, lummox, lump, oaf, stumblebum.
2.
An inexperienced sailor; a sailor on the first voyage.  Synonyms: landlubber, landsman.



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"Lubber" Quotes from Famous Books



... got into the chaise, he said, "Hark'ee, Miss Anville, I've a favour for to ask of you, which is this; that you will write us word how the old gentlewoman finds herself, when she sees it was all a trick; and what the French lubber says to it, and all ...
— Evelina • Fanny Burney

... go down, then," replied Shuffles, as he seated himself in the top, with his legs through the lubber's-hole. "What are our fellows going to do? Do they ...
— Outward Bound - Or, Young America Afloat • Oliver Optic

... I meant to say, The Ladies' Chain." At Matine the other afternoon, When all the violins seemed well in tune, I sang out to the Bell Boy, "What's the hitch? If the Express is due, you'd better switch!" My order seemed the boy to overwhelm— "Lubber!" I cried, "why don't you port your helm?" I made a speech the other night at mess, And what my toast was, nobody will guess; It should have been, "The Union"—'twas, "Be cheery, Boys! the toast we have to drink is—Erie." The boys laughed loudly, ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 7, May 14, 1870 • Various

... goat'—from those mentioned in its prototypes in Scandinavian, Greek, and Eastern ballads and stories; and in more than one it is the sage counsels of 'Billy Blin''—the Brownie—that give the cue by which the evil charm is unwound. The Brownie—the Lubber Fiend—owns a department of legend and ballad scarcely less important than that possessed by his relatives, the Elfin folk and the Trolds; a shy and clumsy monster, but harmless and good-natured, and ...
— The Balladists - Famous Scots Series • John Geddie

... you clumsy young lubber, you," he cried, "by treating my smalls like that? I'll brain you, sure as my ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang

... fat mug, I'll spin ther yarn anyway now! As I wuz a-tellin' yer, we wuz arter a pirate, an' as a passin' ship captain told us he seen ther lubber a-hidin' in a bay, we made up our minds ter disguise ther frigate so's ter haul up inter gun range o' ther lubber. So we sot ter work, an' paintin' her white, we altered her rig, an' bore down on ther bay. In we went, but ther pirate had gone. Whar? Nobody knowed. We was ...
— Jack Wright and His Electric Stage; - or, Leagued Against the James Boys • "Noname"

... that hinted the swift lines of our clippers of more recent years. From mainmast heel to truck, from ensign halyard to tip of flying jib-boom, her well-proportioned masts and spars and taut rigging stood up so trimly in one splendidly cooerdinating structure, that the veriest lubber must have acknowledged her the finest handiwork ...
— The Mutineers • Charles Boardman Hawes

... even bigger fish than this; but 4-lb. and 5-lb. fish are considered really good specimens. The average is not lower than 2 lb., and 3-lb. fish may be taken as "good." The flies used are never smaller than our sea-trout size, and they are more often larger; but the best anglers catalogue you as a lubber if you wield anything heavier than a boy's rod. I have looked over some fly books in active service, and when some day I find myself in that log-house in the Maine woods which I have in my notebook, I will back my selected ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior

... for a knot of lazy scoundrels," exclaimed the stranger, "why do you sit here so calmly, while any being craves admittance on such a night as this? Here, you lubber in the corner, with a pipe in your mouth, come and put up this horse of mine until ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... to the hotel, and on the following morning I saw him again descending the stairs, the same dressing-case in hand. He nodded salute, slung his luggage to the same urchin with the cry, "Hook it, you lubber!" and, turning to me, said, "Ta, ...
— Romantic Spain - A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II) • John Augustus O'Shea

... you? And a mighty suitable thing, too, and you may lay to that. Get back to your place for a lubber, Tom." ...
— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson

... was so shocked at these observations, that he exclaimed with equal rage and impatience, "You lie, you dog, in Bilcum Regis—you lie, I say, you lubber, I did not run away; nor was I in fear, d'ye see. It was my son of a bitch of a horse that would not obey the helm, d'ye see, whereby I cou'd n't use my metal, d'ye see. As for the matter of fear, you and fear may kiss my—So don't go and heave your stink-pots at my character, ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett

... a great bliss for a man to have Leisure with Honour. That was never my fortune. For time was, I had Honour without Leisure; and now I have Leisure without Honour.... But my desire is now to have Leisure without Loitering, and not to become an abbey-lubber, as the old proverb was, but to yield some fruit of my private life.... If King Henry were alive again, I hope verily he would not be so angry with me for not flattering him, as well pleased in seeing himself so truly described in colours that ...
— Bacon - English Men Of Letters, Edited By John Morley • Richard William Church

... Billy Pantry," said the Captain, "for a lubber that knows not the difference between the futtock shrouds and Jacob's ladder, and whose head is so little and his paunch so big, is what my old schoolmaster called a Lucy—Lucy—damn the other part of the name—there I miss stays, ...
— The Knight of the Golden Melice - A Historical Romance • John Turvill Adams

... what they are on board a smack. I will speak to the head-rigger myself, and tell him you want to learn your business, and are ready to do anything that he likes to set you to; and as you have been already two years at the work he will not find you a lubber." ...
— A Chapter of Adventures • G. A. Henty

... take an hour or two before he can clear the cargo off the ground; and there goes the whole speculation. Don't you hear them? You have only to drop your ear to the ground, to know the whole affair. A lubber deserted from us a week ago, and no doubt ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 • Various

... to a sport, they both deemed the most exciting, caused them to upbraid me, till half-past two, with such epithets as, "an old woman," "a shocking cockney," "a fellow only fit to wear white kid gloves," "a Regent Street swell," "a land lubber," "a milk sop," and a multitude of other curious idioms, that rather made me merry than clashed ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross

... most perfectly equipped yachts. There was this difference, however, that nothing about it indicated that it was ever off an even keel. There were no racks or other contrivances to suggest that it was prepared to turn in any direction at an angle of forty-five degrees, and which to the land-lubber causes qualms even while the ship is still tied ...
— L. P. M. - The End of the Great War • J. Stewart Barney

... heavy Lubber! Sure this fellow Has a bushell of plot in's belly, he weighes so massy. Heigh! now againe! he stincks like a hung poll cat. This rotten treason has a vengeance savour; This venison wants pepper ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Various

... off in a very undecided manner, as though hesitating to attack. My spirits fell again at this, for with all my inexperience I knew her to be a better sailer than the Black Moll. Her master, as Griggs remarked, "was no d—d slouching lubber, and knew a yardarm from a ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... every ropeyarn tingling like a wire; the two tall masts buckling like Indian canes in land tornadoes. So full of this reeling scene were we, as we stood by the plunging bowsprit, that for some time we did not notice the jeering glances of the passengers, a lubber-like assembly, who marvelled that two fellow beings should be so companionable; as though a white man were anything more dignified than a whitewashed negro. But there were some boobies and bumpkins ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... large and, as the boys say, fat. When a mere lad he was a plump, chubby, roly-poly chap who was always liked because he was so good-natured. Can you guess the nicknames the other boys gave him? Sometimes they called him "Lubber," but most of the time he was hailed simply as "Lub." Big, over-grown boys are sure to be awkward, and "Lub" was no exception. If he started to run across a field with the other boys, he was sure to fall. When they turned to gather him up, they would fairly roll with laughter, ...
— Modern Americans - A Biographical School Reader for the Upper Grades • Chester Sanford

... of his rifle, near an old oak in whose branches he once used to climb, Philippe saw a great lubber in uniform throw up his hands, bend his legs one after the other and stretch himself along the ground, slowly, as ...
— The Frontier • Maurice LeBlanc

... keep the boys from going off to sea before they were grown. No inland occupation attracted them. "Land-lubber" was one of the most contemptuous epithets heard from boyish lips. The spirit of adventure developed in them a rough, breezy type ...
— A New England Girlhood • Lucy Larcom

... "Why, you cussed lubber!" growled the skipper, moving up and taking a look, "it p'ints d'rectly to labbard, an' there's ...
— Cobwebs From an Empty Skull • Ambrose Bierce (AKA: Dod Grile)

... believe, Limb-meal, limb from limb, List, desire, pleasure, Lithe, joint, Longing unto, belonging to, Long on (upon), because of, Loos, praise, Lotless, without a share, Loveday, day for. settling disputes, Loving, praising, Lunes, leashes, strings, Lusk, lubber, ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume I (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory

... the captain. "I'll send it to you C. O. D. when I get back to Buenas Tierras. Here comes that capstan-footed lubber with the chewin'. I ought to've weighed anchor an ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X) • Various

... hands. And it was this very equality they resented. By what right was I an equal? I had not earned that high privilege. I had not endured the miseries they had endured as maltreated boys or bullied ordinaries. Worse than that, I was a land-lubber making his first voyage. And yet, by the injustice of fate, on the ship's ...
— The Human Drift • Jack London

... ruffian (that kept the good wife) whom Andreuccio neuer saw, nor heard before: looked out of the windowe, and with a bigge and horrible voice, demaunded who was beneath? Whereat Andreuccio lifting vp his head, saw one, that so far as he could perceiue, seemed to be a long lubber and a large, with a blacke beard, and a sterne visage, looking as though he were newly rysen from bedde, ful of sleepe, gaping and rubbing his eyes. Whom Andreuccio aunsweared in fearefull wise, saying: "I am the good wiue's brother of the house." But the Ruffian ...
— The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 • William Painter

... man. A greasy red cloth bound his head and produced a final touch of barbarity. To the half-dazed Jeremy there seemed something strangely familiar about his pose, but as he still stared he was jerked to his feet by the collar. "Don't stand there, you lubber!" shouted the man with the broken nose. "Get aft, an' lively!" A hard shove sent the boy spinning to the foot of the ladder. He climbed dizzily and stumbled on deck, looking about him, uncertain where to go. It must have been past noon, for the sun ...
— The Black Buccaneer • Stephen W. Meader

... beast, The miller caused his hopeful son to ride, And walk'd behind, without a spark of pride. Three merchants pass'd, and, mightily displeased, The eldest of these gentlemen cried out, "Ho there! dismount, for shame, you lubber lout! Nor make a foot-boy of your grey-beard sire; Change places, as the rights of age require." "To please you, sirs," the miller said, "I ought." So down the young and up the old man got. Three girls next passing, "What a shame!" says one, "That boy ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine

... half the wind!" he yells. "Pint' her for the buoy or else you'll be licked to death! Jibe her so's she gits it full. Jibe her, you lubber! Don't you know how? ...
— Cape Cod Stories - The Old Home House • Joseph C. Lincoln

... 'I'm an ainshunt old skipper, that's all, And I ain't never done nuffin wrong.' He sez, 'You old lubber, just stow that blubber, I'm a-going fer to haul ...
— Successful Recitations • Various

... gasped; "what do you mean by that, you lubber? Lay it on, sir; lay it on hot and heavy, or by Jove I'll have you seized up, and will give you five ...
— The Voyage of the Aurora • Harry Collingwood

... direction he washed out my scalp wounds and sewed them up. A big drink of whiskey braced me to make an effort to get out. There was nothing else to do. All the rest were dead. We tried to get up sail, Saxtorph hoisting and I holding the turn. He was once more the stupid lubber. He couldn't hoist worth a cent, and when I fell in a faint, it looked ...
— South Sea Tales • Jack London

... willingly or conveniently leave it aloft. All hands but himself were promptly on deck, and ready to sway up the yard. The mate shouted to him in the full strength of his lungs to "Bear a hand and lay in off the yard," and unjustly berated him as a "lubber," while the poor fellow was tugging away, and working with might and main, to disengage his tail from the lift, in which he at length succeeded, but not without the aid of ...
— Jack in the Forecastle • John Sherburne Sleeper

... and the boys stood by perplexed and distressed, Brother Segrim came back, and said, "So, young sirs, have you seen enough of your doting kinsman? The sub-prior bids me say that we harbour no strange, idling, lubber lads nor strange dogs here. 'Tis enough for us to be saddled with dissolute old men-at-arms without all their idle kin making an excuse to come and pay their devoirs. These corrodies are a heavy charge and a weighty abuse, and if there be the visitation the king's majesty ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge

... a hatchet, level the stump, cut away the root, and spread pine brush over the place, am I to be called lazy for doing so? Or if I sit down on a chair, and on trying to lean back to rest myself find that the stupid lubber who made it has so constructed it that four small hard points alone touch my person—two being at the hip-joints and two at the shoulder-blades; and if to relieve such physical agony I jump up and clap a pillow at my back, am I to be ...
— The Young Fur Traders • R.M. Ballantyne

... Benjamin; if so be that a man wants to walk the quarter-deck with credit, dye see, and with regular built swabs on his shoulders, he mustnt think to do it by getting in at the cabin windows. There are two ways to get into a top, besides the lubber-holes. The true way to walk aft is to begin forrard; thof it he only in a humble way, like myself, dye see, which was from being only a hander of topgallant sails, and a stower of the flying-jib, to keeping the key ...
— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper

... the vale upon; So take occasion to be blest, And Bacchus was invited guest. His shaggy crew have helped the plan. Silenus made the pipes of Pan, The Satyrs teased the vines about, And Bacchus sent a lubber lout, Who lurked, and stole, ere wink of moon, The heedless Amalthea's horn. Now all are gone to Arcady, Head bent on rousing jollity. Now riot rout will be, anon, That shall the very sun aston, By waters whilst, and on the leas, Under the old fantastic trees. ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various

... the seaward breezes Sweep down the bay amain; Heave up, my lads, the anchor! Run up the sail again! Leave to the lubber landsmen The rail-car and the steed; The stars of heaven shall guide us The breath of heaven ...
— New National Fourth Reader • Charles J. Barnes and J. Marshall Hawkes



Words linked to "Lubber" :   beginner, initiate, tiro, novice, lout, tyro, clumsy person



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