anorak
Americannoun
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a hooded pullover jacket originally made of fur and worn in the Arctic, now made of any weather-resistant fabric.
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a jacket patterned after this, made of any weather-resistant material and worn widely.
noun
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a warm waterproof hip-length jacket usually with a hood, originally worn in polar regions, but now worn for any outdoor activity
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informal a socially inept person with a hobby considered by most people to be boring
Etymology
Origin of anorak
First recorded in 1920–25; from Inuit (Greenlandic) annoraaq
Explanation
An anorak is a waterproof jacket with a hood. Another word for an anorak is a parka. Many anoraks are lined with fur or some other warm, wooly material. Arctic explorers and climbers wear anoraks, as well as Inuits and other native people in very cold regions. Inuits, in fact, invented the anorak for hunting and fishing, from seal and caribou skin coated with fish oil. The Kalaallisut language, from Greenland, used the word anoraq, which became anorak in the 1930s.
Vocabulary lists containing anorak
The Graveyard Book
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Red, White & Royal Blue
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Black Swan Green
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Blond-haired, blue-eyed Adam wears a red anorak and a woollen hat, with a Mickey Mouse sticker on the front.
From BBC • Jan. 28, 2025
Taman, wearing a light anorak, is camping out with his parents, his 11-year old brother and seven-month old sister near the border fence where Polish security forces are trying to prevent the migrants from crossing.
From Reuters • Nov. 16, 2021
The young Pellow was a music anorak – he loved indie bands and soul singers.
From The Guardian • Mar. 29, 2021
Sara Cummings, clad in an arctic-white anorak, baggy forest-green cargo pants and thick-soled white hiking boots, is about to step in front of the camera at the Reese Cooper fashion show and lookbook shoot.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 21, 2021
They were clean, and of good quality, like Tony Makarios’s anorak, but again there was a secondhand air about them.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
