"basement dweller" meaning in English

See basement dweller in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-basement-dweller.wav [US] Forms: basement dwellers [plural], basement-dweller [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} basement dweller (plural basement dwellers)
  1. (informal, sometimes derogatory) An adult who lives in their parents' house (stereotypically in their basement); often with implications of idleness or social awkwardness. Tags: derogatory, informal, sometimes Derived forms: basement-dwelling Related terms: cellar dweller, failure to launch, hikikomori, neckbeard, NEET Translations (adult who lives in their parents' house): peräkammarin poika (english: man) (Finnish), piwniczniak [masculine] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-basement_dweller-en-noun-0cNQxOuD Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with Polish translations, People Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 91 9 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 87 13 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 95 5 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 95 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 82 18 Disambiguation of People: 100 0 Disambiguation of "adult who lives in their parents' house": 94 6
  2. (by extension, informal, derogatory, usually Internet slang) A nerd or geek; a person lacking a social life. Tags: Internet, broadly, derogatory, informal, usually
    Sense id: en-basement_dweller-en-noun-bvkHzVNa

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "basement dwellers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "basement-dweller",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "basement dweller (plural basement dwellers)",
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
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          "_dis": "95 5",
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          "_dis": "82 18",
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          "_dis": "100 0",
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          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "basement-dwelling"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              23,
              40
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2014, Nicole R. Matthews, Permission!, page 44:",
          "text": "Who Do You Hang With — Basement Dwellers or Penthouse Cheerleaders? It's important to take regular inventory of the people you are surrounding yourself with on a fairly consistent basis.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              77,
              94
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009, Mary Stuever, The Forester's Log: Musings from the Woods:",
          "text": "Over the years, I had shared the square feet of this office space with other basement dwellers, mostly squirrels and rabbits, and unfortunately a few skunks.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An adult who lives in their parents' house (stereotypically in their basement); often with implications of idleness or social awkwardness."
      ],
      "id": "en-basement_dweller-en-noun-0cNQxOuD",
      "links": [
        [
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          "derogatory"
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        [
          "adult",
          "adult"
        ],
        [
          "parent",
          "parent"
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        [
          "stereotypically",
          "stereotypically"
        ],
        [
          "basement",
          "basement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, sometimes derogatory) An adult who lives in their parents' house (stereotypically in their basement); often with implications of idleness or social awkwardness."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "cellar dweller"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "failure to launch"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "hikikomori"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "neckbeard"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "NEET"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "informal",
        "sometimes"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "man",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "adult who lives in their parents' house",
          "translation": "man",
          "word": "peräkammarin poika"
        },
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          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "adult who lives in their parents' house",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "piwniczniak"
        }
      ]
    },
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      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A nerd or geek; a person lacking a social life."
      ],
      "id": "en-basement_dweller-en-noun-bvkHzVNa",
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        [
          "geek",
          "geek"
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        [
          "social life",
          "social life"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, informal, derogatory, usually Internet slang) A nerd or geek; a person lacking a social life."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Internet",
        "broadly",
        "derogatory",
        "informal",
        "usually"
      ]
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      "tags": [
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{
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
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      "word": "basement-dwelling"
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  "forms": [
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    },
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  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "cellar dweller"
    },
    {
      "word": "failure to launch"
    },
    {
      "word": "hikikomori"
    },
    {
      "word": "neckbeard"
    },
    {
      "word": "NEET"
    }
  ],
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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          "ref": "2009, Mary Stuever, The Forester's Log: Musings from the Woods:",
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          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An adult who lives in their parents' house (stereotypically in their basement); often with implications of idleness or social awkwardness."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
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        [
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          "parent"
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        [
          "stereotypically",
          "stereotypically"
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        [
          "basement",
          "basement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, sometimes derogatory) An adult who lives in their parents' house (stereotypically in their basement); often with implications of idleness or social awkwardness."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "informal",
        "sometimes"
      ]
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      "glosses": [
        "A nerd or geek; a person lacking a social life."
      ],
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        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "Internet",
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        "(by extension, informal, derogatory, usually Internet slang) A nerd or geek; a person lacking a social life."
      ],
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        "Internet",
        "broadly",
        "derogatory",
        "informal",
        "usually"
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      "tags": [
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "man",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "adult who lives in their parents' house",
      "translation": "man",
      "word": "peräkammarin poika"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "adult who lives in their parents' house",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "piwniczniak"
    }
  ],
  "word": "basement dweller"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-02 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-07-06 using wiktextract (d9fa233 and 9e92f4b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.