man about town

See also: man-about-town

English

Alternative forms

• man-about-town

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

man about town (plural men about town)

1. A worldly, social man who frequents fashionable places.

   Synonyms: boulevardier, flaneur; see also Thesaurus:sensualist

   Coordinate terms: bon vivant, dandy, socialite, woman about town

   • 1886, Punch‎^[1], volume 91, page 249:

     For in this quality of “clubbable,” and the value now put upon it, lies the whole secret of change in our fast men, mashers, and men about town.

   • 1902, W. Somerset Maugham, Mrs Craddock, penguin Classics, published 1992, →ISBN, page 71:

     To Bertha this was a charm rather than a defect; his bashful candour touched her, and she compared it favourably with the foolish worldliness of the imaginary man about town whose dissipation she always opposed to her husband's virtues.

Translations

a worldly, social man who frequents fashionable places

• Italian: uomo di mondo m
• Latin: scurra m

Further reading

• “man about town”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.