noun
lubber
LUB-er/lˈʌbɝ/
A clumsy or awkward person.
The lubber struggles with a tangled rope beside an experienced sailor.
Etymology
Middle English lobre described a lazy, clumsy fellow. Sailors narrowed this general insult to someone inept or inexperienced at sea; the word's deeper ancestry is uncertain.
In context
my sweeting sails three paces to that lubber’s two, and if the wind holds we shall have time and to spare.
More examples
- I feel like a lubber whenever I try to dance.
- That lubber knocks over a chair on his way out.
- We are a pair of lubbers trying to carry this couch.
Forms
lubber · lubbers
landlubber noun — A person unfamiliar with sailing or seafaring.