layabout

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

To the book’s heartsick narrator, Louise Brown, the man who embodies those old-fashioned virtues is Claude Collier, the 27-year-old layabout scion of an aristocratic New Orleans clan.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026

Katie sees Rachel as little more than a useless layabout waiting to claim the apartment, even though Rachel had been the live-in caregiver before things turned.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2024

Sir Gawain is a bit of a cad when we first meet him, a drunken layabout who’d rather woo than fight.

From New York Times • Jul. 29, 2021

Roman is a layabout who wastes what may be natural intelligence, and seems not to know what his actual job is, much less how to handle the basic functions of it.

From Salon • Oct. 15, 2019

"Suppose I do know?" he urged, tightening a little the arm that layabout her.

From The Story of Julia Page by Norris, Kathleen Thompson