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Glite Dictionary
friendly geezer

friendly geezer

9.3
A man who is pleasant, helpful, and easy to talk to
  • noun
  • /ˈfrɛndli ˈɡiːzə/
  • Slang
translation icon : tipo amigable
  • Everyone knows Joe is a friendly geezer who always helps his neighbors.

Examples

  • The pub was full of friendly geezers chatting about football.

  • You can always trust a friendly geezer to show you the way around town.

  • He's a real friendly geezer!

  • My neighbor is such a friendly geezer.

  • Everyone knows Joe is a friendly geezer who always helps his neighbors.

  • The pub was full of friendly geezers chatting about football.

  • You can always trust a friendly geezer to show you the way around town.

Synonyms

nice bloke
vsfriendly geezer
  • UK
1 7.7

A friendly man who is kind and easy to like

is the broader informal British label stressing amiable personality
friendly bloke
vsfriendly geezer
  • UK
3.5

A man who is nice and easy to talk to

is mainly used in casual British speech to mean an amiable man

Antonyms

hostile
194 4.6

Showing strong dislike or opposition

How Friendly

warmhearted
1 3.7
friendly geezer
  • Slang
9.3
pleasant
89 1.0
affable
16 5.5
aloof
34 6.3

Surface Forms

friendly geezer singular
friendly geezers plural

Morphology

friendly + geezer

The meaning 'an amiable or pleasant man' is directly and compositionally derived from 'friendly' (showing kindness) modifying 'geezer' (a man), following the regular adjective + noun pattern. Although 'geezer' is informal/British, the relation is literal and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituent words would readily understand the phrase.

Etymology

The phrase friendly geezer comes from informal British English where geezer once meant a 'man' and may come from the old word 'guiser' for someone who dressed up and joined crowds. Putting friendly with geezer gives the picture of a pleasant man who chats and helps others, so it means 'an amiable man'.