Definitions

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

  • noun A fellow; a man.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Man; fellow: a term of disrespect or contumely.

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

  • noun UK a man who behaves in a particularly laddish or overtly heterosexual manner.
  • noun colloquial An anglophone man.
  • noun Australia An exemplar of a certain masculine, independent male archetype.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a boy or man

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First known usage 1851. Origin unknown. Hypotheses include:

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bloke.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • UK vernacular

    July 17, 2008

  • Aussie too.

    The Sentimental Bloke was a verse novel by poet C.J. Dennis (1876–1938), subsequently turned into a film in 1919 and now regarded as "one of the greatest silent films Australia every produced". But over time the complete film was lost and only shortened versions survived. That is, until a researcher pottering around in an American film archive found original reels catalogued as "The Sentimental Blonde". It had been decided that "bloke" was a misprint!

    October 12, 2008

  • Bowie and his wife 'lived in a fantasy world', said Finnigan, 'and they created their bisexual fantasy'.

    Bowie laughed uproariously when a dinner guest once tapped him on the back and called him 'Angle'. In later years he made a positive fetish of repeating the quip that he and his wife had met while 'fucking the same bloke'.

    (Bowie: Loving the Alien, by Christopher Sandford)

    March 11, 2009