dosser

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɒsə(ɹ)/

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From doss +‎ -er.

dosser (plural dossers)

1. (British, Ireland) Someone who dosses, someone known for avoiding work.

   Synonyms: shirker; see also Thesaurus:idler

   • 2023 October 20, “Labour takes Nadine Dorries’ former seat in Mid Bedfordshire byelection”, in The Guardian‎, UK:

     Illustrating the strength of feeling, some said Dorries was “never here and is as useful as a chocolate teapot”, while “Dosser Dorries” posters appeared in the area.

2. A homeless and jobless person.
   • 1890, William Booth, chapter 3, in In Darkest England and the Way Out‎:

     Formerly they endeavoured to occupy all the seats, but the lynx-eyed Metropolitan Police declined to allow any such proceedings, and the dossers, knowing the invariable kindness of the City Police, made tracks for that portion of the Embankment which, lying east of the Temple, comes under the control of the Civic Fathers.

3. One who lodges in a doss-house.

Late Latin dosserum, or French dossier (“bundle of papers, part of a basket resting on the back”), from Latin dorsum (“back”). See dorsal.

• dorsel, dorser

dosser (plural dossers)

1. A pannier or basket.
   • 1626 February 13 (licensing date), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Noble Gentleman”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene i:

     To hire a ripper's mare, and buy new dossers.

2. A hanging tapestry; a dorsal.

• Sedors, Soders, dorses, dosers, resods, rossed, soders, sordes