# Lounge lizard

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{{Short description|American slang term}}{{Other uses|Lounge lizard (disambiguation)}}
A '''lounge lizard''' is a man who frequents social establishments with the intention of seducing a woman with his flattery and deceptive charm.<ref>{{Cite web|title=On Language|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/08/magazine/on-language.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|last=Safire|first=William|work=[New York Times](/source/New_York_Times)|accessdate=2012-06-28}}</ref> The term is reported to have arisen around 1915 in New York. A 1931 book described them as men "[in] the habit of lounging in different dance resorts from tea time on, on a chance of picking up a few dollars;  or they might be habitués of the place or of an outer room, described as a 'lounge', for the purpose of picking up girls and women.  In Europe, he subsequently evolved into what is now known as the [gigolo](/source/gigolo)."<ref>{{cite book|page=81|title=The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech|author=Irving Lewis Allen|publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press)|year=1995}}</ref>

== Examples ==
In the 1919 [Charlie Chaplin](/source/Charlie_Chaplin) film [''Sunnyside''](/source/Sunnyside_(1919_film)) the term appears as a [title card](/source/title_card), describing a group of men reading newspapers in a hotel lobby.<ref>''Sunnyside'' at 20:30</ref>

In [Buster Keaton](/source/Buster_Keaton)'s 1924 film ''[Sherlock Jr.](/source/Sherlock_Jr.)'', Keaton plays a projectionist at a movie theater where the movie showing is ''Hearts & Pearls or The Lounge Lizard's Lost Love''. The [movie within a movie](/source/Story_within_a_story) has a character who is good looking and well dressed who is romantically involved with a wealthy young woman.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sherlock Jr. |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/12044 |access-date=2025-11-14 |website=catalog.afi.com}} In Synopsis tab.</ref>

In the first story of [Agatha Christie](/source/Agatha_Christie)’s ''[Parker Pyne Investigates](/source/Parker_Pyne_Investigates)'', ‘The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife’, the character of Claude Luttrell is referred to as a “lounge lizard”.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christie |first=Agatha |title=Parker Pyne Investigates |publisher=Collins Mystery |year=1934 |isbn=978-0007154821 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=3-28}}</ref>

== See also ==
* ''[Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards](/source/Leisure_Suit_Larry_in_the_Land_of_the_Lounge_Lizards)''

==References==
{{reflist}}

Category:Slang terms for men

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lounge lizard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lounge_lizard) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lounge_lizard?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.