Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
day boarder

day boarder

6.8
A student who eats at school during the day but goes home to sleep
  • noun
  • UK
translation icon : alumno externo
  • As a day boarder, she enjoyed the benefits of school meals and activities while returning to her family each evening.

Examples

  • He is a day boarder, arriving early in the morning for lessons and going home after dinner.

  • Girard is now a grades 1-12 boarding school with nearly 700 students, many coming from the Philadelphia area as five-day boarders.

    Academic text (2006)

  • At the private school, many students are day boarders, attending classes and having lunch but sleeping at home every night.

How Residential

day boarder
  • UK
6.8
day school
4 1.7

Surface Forms

day boarder singular
day boarders plural

Morphology

day + boarder

The meaning is compositionally derived: 'day' modifies 'boarder' to indicate boarding limited to the daytime, so a learner who knows 'day' and 'boarder' can infer someone who attends school and eats there but returns home to sleep. This form follows a common compounding pattern (compare 'day pupil'/'day student') and is therefore readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.

Etymology

Day boarder comes from school words: day means in school during the day and boarder comes from 'board', meaning the school's 'meals' and care. So a day boarder is a pupil who eats and studies at school but goes home to 'sleep' each night.