Definitions

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

  • noun One that interferes with the affairs of others, often for selfish reasons; a meddler.
  • noun One that intrudes in a place, situation, or activity.
  • noun One that trespasses on a trade monopoly, as by conducting unauthorized trade in an area designated to a chartered company.
  • noun A ship or other vessel used in such trade.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who trades without license.
  • noun One who interferes obtrusively or officiously; one who thrusts himself into a station to which he has no claim, or into affairs in which he has no interest.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who interlopes; one who unlawfully intrudes upon a property, a station, or an office; one who interferes wrongfully or officiously.

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

  • noun obsolete An unlicensed or illegitimate trader.
  • noun One who interferes, intrudes or gets involved where not welcome, particularly a self-interested intruder.

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

  • noun someone who intrudes on the privacy or property of another without permission

Etymologies

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

[inter– + probably Middle Dutch lōper, runner (from lōpen, to run).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1590s, from inter- +‎ loper (“runner, rover”), as in landloper ("vagrant") (from Dutch) or lope ("to leap, to jump") (originally dialectical). Originally spelt enterloper and used in specific sense “unauthorized trader trespassing on privileges of chartered companies”, later general sense of “self-interested intruder” from 1630s.

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Examples

  • The Dads get off scott free, because hey they aren’t pregnant, it must be Mom’s fault this interloper is arriving.

    Mommy Dearest | Her Bad Mother 2008

  • Way back in 2000, every single one came from Asimov’s, F&SF or Analog, save for an interloper from the semi-prozine Interzone.

    Books 2010

  • Way back in 2000, every single one came from Asimov’s, F&SF or Analog, save for an interloper from the semi-prozine Interzone.

    Hugo Bound 2009

  • Way back in 2000, every single one came from Asimov’s, F&SF or Analog, save for an interloper from the semi-prozine Interzone.

    Stromata Blog: 2009

  • This is especially the case if you have hard water and the interloper is a car parked in your favorite space along your lawn.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Was SEIU’s Picketing Illegal, Whether or Not They Trespassed? 2010

  • This is especially the case if you have hard water and the interloper is a car parked in your favorite space along your lawn.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Was SEIU’s Picketing Illegal, Whether or Not They Trespassed? 2010

  • Meanwhile, back in the Hills, Stephanie takes her new boyfriend Cameron out to dinner with Heidi and Spencer, and naturally someone behaves like a petulant baby by calling the interloper "Stephanie's first boyfriend" and bringing up that old Doug song and dance.

    Jaunted - The Pop Culture Travel Guide 2008

  • There he felt every inch the ragtag interloper he'd been a lifetime ago.

    Only You Leigh Sutherland & Peg Greenwood 1997

  • His presence in this room under that name was an insult, and he intended to call the interloper to account the very first opportunity he found.

    The Place of Honeymoons Harold MacGrath 1901

  • He declared, too, that the interloper was the missing Jordan, beyond a doubt, and that he had come there to steal the money he had buried in that same field years before.

    The Boy Trapper Harry Castlemon 1878

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