GAMBLER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gambler mean? 

• GAMBLER (noun)
  The noun GAMBLER has 2 senses:

1. a person who wagers money on the outcome of games or sporting events

2. someone who risks loss or injury in the hope of gain or excitement

  Familiarity information: GAMBLER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GAMBLER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who wagers money on the outcome of games or sporting events

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("gambler" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gambler"):

ex-gambler (a former gambler)

better; bettor; punter; wagerer (someone who bets)

bookie; bookmaker (a gambler who accepts and pays off bets (especially on horse races))

crapshooter (a gambler who plays the game of craps)

croupier (someone who collects and pays bets at a gaming table)

high roller (a gambler who wagers large sums)

loser (a gambler who loses a bet)

handicapper; odds-maker (someone who sets the betting odds based on calculations of the outcome of a contest (especially a horse race))

crap-shooter; shooter (a gambler who throws dice in the game of craps)

plunger; speculator (someone who risks losses for the possibility of considerable gains)

sporting man (someone who leads a merry existence; especially a gambler on the outcome of sporting events)

winner (a gambler who wins a bet)

Derivation:

gamble (play games for money)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who risks loss or injury in the hope of gain or excitement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

gambler; risk taker

Hypernyms ("gambler" is a kind of...):

adventurer; venturer (a person who enjoys taking risks)

Derivation:

gamble (take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome)

 Context examples 

The crowd fell silent; only could be heard the voices of the gamblers vainly offering two to one.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Man is a natural gambler, and life is the biggest stake he can lay.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He is one of the most dangerous men in England—a ruined gambler, an absolutely desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That jaw was the jaw of the private Charles Fox, the gambler, the libertine, the drunkard.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Pathological gamblers are unable to cut back on their gambling, despite the fact that it may lead them to lie, steal, or lose a significant relationship, job, or educational opportunity.

(Pathological Gambling, NCI Thesaurus)

He soon made ducks and drakes of what I gave him, sank lower and lower, married another woman, I believe, became an adventurer, a gambler, and a cheat.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As he spoke, there sounded high above the shriek of the gale and the straining of the timbers a gust of oaths with a roar of deep-chested mirth from the gamblers in the forecastle.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the days of the Regency.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Meyer Wolfshiem? No, he's a gambler." Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: "He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)