Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A heavy jacket with a hood; a parka.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A heavy weatherproof jacket with an attached hood; a parka or windcheater.
  • noun UK, slang A geek or nerd, possibly originally either a train spotter or a fan of off-shore pirate radio.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a kind of heavy jacket (`windcheater' is a British term)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Inuit annuraaq.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greenlandic annoraaq.

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Examples

  • SWEENEY: Patrick, the word anorak comes to mind and that comes from my childhood, but it was where people would have a fixation on a particular thing, it might be radio presenters or people in news or something like that, and they would constantly communicate with each other.

    CNN Transcript Jul 24, 2004 2004

  • In fact, he is something of an "anorak" on the subject.

    The NUT's John Bangs – the best leader they never had – is stepping down 2010

  • It's well known that "anorak" is just a foreign name for a dirty mac, so the UK government probably thinks they've already got that one covered....

    O (English) Rose, Thou Art Sick glyn moody 2008

  • The blog's name Ardent Student is due the fact that I acknowledge that I am an utter learning geek - what the British call an "anorak".

    Ardent student Karyn Romeis 2006

  • The blog's name Ardent Student is due the fact that I acknowledge that I am an utter learning geek - what the British call an "anorak".

    Archive 2006-10-01 Karyn Romeis 2006

  • Perhaps the term was intended to describe not my clothing but my personality; something just short of "anorak".

    Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2010

  • It must be something to do with our climate, whose low grey skies encourage a certain kind of anorak to spend hours burrowing in libraries.

    CathNews 2010

  • The IT sector's "anorak" image is a turnoff and women are needed to plug the skills gap - Comment: Top 10 cool IT people revealed

    The most recent articles from Computing 2009

  • Some believe, for all its faults, that the former committee system did not just allow elected members to make real decisions it also equipped them with the kind of anorak specialist knowledge that could later be put to good use when taking up cases on behalf of constituents.

    inside out 2009

  • Train spotting may have acquired an "anorak" tag but it was once one of Britain's most popular hobbies.

    Daily Express News Feeds 2009

Comments

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  • A more current transliteration would be "anoraaq".

    December 23, 2008

  • Many would consider it the same garment as a parka.

    December 23, 2008