Landlord

//ˈlæn(d).lɔɹd// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person that leases real property; a lessor.

    "Brethren, brethren, it were better to haue this communitie, Then to haue this difference in degrees: The landlord his rent, the lawyer his fees. So quickly the poore mans ſubſtance is ſpent […]"

  2. 2
    a landowner who leases to others wordnet
  3. 3
    The owner or manager of a public house. British

    "When asked to explain why he became a landlord, he told the Archbishop of York it was so he could close the pub on Sundays, and suppress the profane language and singing that came through the bar windows."

  4. 4
    A shark, imagined as the owner of the surf to be avoided. slang, with-definite-article

    "the lurking presence of “The Landlord”"

Verb
  1. 1
    To lease real property; to act as a lessor. rare, transitive

    "All kinds of "Dulishevskis" were "landlording" in Tisza's time, and have continued under the Communists."

Synonyms

All synonyms
lairdlandownerproprietorpublicanbeneficiarycestui

Example

More examples

"The landlord told him to leave because he hadn't paid his rent."

Etymology

From Middle English londlord, landlorde, from Old English landhlāford, equivalent to land + lord. Cognate with Scots landlaird, Middle Low German lantlord (“homeowner, landlord”).

Related phrases

head landlordlandlord specialsocial landlordsub-landlordsuperior landlordpublic house

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.