onanist

[ oh-nuh-nist ]

noun

1. someone who practices coitus interruptus or masturbation:

   A confirmed onanist, or chronic masturbator, she saw no need for a relationship with someone other than herself.

2. someone who commits acts that are thought to be sexually deviant:

   The city is famous for gamblers, prostitutes, alcoholics, fetishists, onanists, and pornographers.

3. someone whose behavior exhibits self-serving intellectual or emotional gratification:

   They seem to be a clique of onanists with nothing better to do than spend their lives at a computer terminal, insulting other people.

Other Words From

• o·nan·is·tic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of onanist¹

onan(ism) ( def ) + -ist ( def )

Example Sentences

Shafer’s column also contained this memorable line: “He was an onanist, playing self-abuse games with his copy, but he wasn’t any sort of plagiarist.”

From Salon

High point Cuarón swapping the traditionally grandiose opening sequence for an intimate tracking shot zooming in on Harry as he practices spells beneath the bed covers like some kind of feverish magical onanist.

From The Guardian

As a closet onanist, he is a hands-on pioneer of safe sex.

From Time Magazine Archive

A young female onanist who suffered from sexual excitement complicated with a nervous condition, complained to me of being obliged to work as a telegraphist among young men, as this continually excited her eroticism without the possibility of satisfying it.

From Project Gutenberg

One little woman, an onanist, was like a character out of Dickens, exaggerated, affected, unnatural, with remains of gentility and society manners.

From Project Gutenberg