oxygen waster
- noun
- Offensive
:
parásito
- He called his lazy coworker an oxygen waster after yet another missed deadline.
Examples
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Social media trolls are often dismissed as mere oxygen wasters by frustrated users.
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She refused to date someone she considered an oxygen waster with no ambitions.
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He is such an oxygen waster!
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Many people believe that lazy individuals are just oxygen wasters.
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He called his lazy coworker an oxygen waster after yet another missed deadline.
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She refused to date someone she considered an oxygen waster with no ambitions.
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Many people believe that lazy individuals are just oxygen wasters.
Synonyms
148
7.4
People who are treated as worthless or unimportant
16
7.1
A person who is lazy and does nothing useful
6
7.2
A person who spends money or time carelessly on unimportant things
1
9.9
A person seen as having no value or use
1
9.2
An insulting word for a person who is dishonest or behaves badly
A person others think is useless and not successful
A rude person who annoys or hurts other people
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is compositionally transparent: 'waster' denotes someone who wastes X, so 'oxygen waster' readily means someone who wastes oxygen (i.e., a person considered useless or unnecessarily consuming life-sustaining air). This insulting sense is directly inferable from the constituents and follows standard English compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words could deduce the intended meaning.
Etymology
Oxygen waster is an insulting phrase that makes you picture someone just breathing and doing nothing useful. oxygen is the air we breathe and waster is someone who wastes something. That's why people call someone an oxygen waster to mean 'useless' or 'unproductive'.