lounge lizard

• lounge-lizard

lounge lizard (plural lounge lizards)

1. (Jazz-age or flapper slang) An idler or pleasure-seeker; a person who spends considerable time loitering in bars and cocktail lounges.
   • 1937, George Orwell, chapter 7, in The Road to Wigan Pier:

     There is at least a tinge of truth in that picture of Southern England as one enormous Brighton inhabited by lounge-lizards.

   • 1985 July 13, net.singles:

     I certainly don't advocate trying to copy some Las Vegas lounge lizard.

   • 1995 January 20, The Washington Post,:

     With his panther glide and lounge-lizard eyes, Fishburne has become one of film's most mesmerizing stars.

   • 2003 March 17, The New Yorker,:

     Someone should pull together a major movie for this actor, because he’s great at playing heels with a vagrant streak of decency—say, a lounge lizard with feelings, an uncomfortably adulterous husband.

2. A lounge singer, especially in Las Vegas.
   • 1999, Nevada Department of Economic Development:

     Wayne Newton says he has one request: Never call an entertainer a "lounge lizard."

   • 2002 October 14, The New Yorker,:

     A second later, funky beats and distorted guitars kicked in, and then quirky hip-hop-style vocals with a country-and-Western lounge-lizard overlay.

   • 2014, Tara Murtha, Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe‎:

     The distorted phrasing feels almost hokey, in the vein of what we typically think of as Vegas lounge-lizard style, quick talk-sing phrasing punctuated by sustained soaring notes.

   • 2015, James Kaplan, Sinatra: The Chairman‎:

     Ross had expected to find a hungover Vegas lounge lizard; instead, he witnessed a surprising demonstration of Frank [Sinatra] at the peak of his powers.

3. (slang) A person who spends a lot of time sitting or lying down, often watching television, eating snacks or drinking alcohol.

   Synonyms: couch potato; see also Thesaurus:idler

   • 1994, Marguerite Kelly, Marguerite Kelly's Family Almanac‎, page 216:

     Watch only thirty to ninety minutes of TV a day, so people don't think you're a lounge lizard, a couch potato, or a pet rock.

   • 2010, Gerard Goggin, Global Mobile Media‎, page 95:

     Social television is a direct challenge to the idea that television is an anti-social, lower-class, lounge-lizard, couch surfing, domestic, household activity.

   • 2012, Benny Goodman, Sweetest Moments Finest Hours‎, page 28:

     Mort, who was still welded to the sofa, spoke without looking up as he needed to concentrate on rolling a cigarette. Lounge lizard? Couch potato? Perish the thought!

   • [2017, Martina Nicolls, Similar but Different in the Animal Kingdom‎, page 382:

     A lounge lizard is a phrase meaning that someone is lazy, like a lizard, because the person is sitting on a couch or armchair.]