boarder

/ˈbɔərdər/

/ˈbɔdə/

Other forms: boarders

A boarder is someone who rents a room in someone's house. It can also be a student who lives and studies away from home at a boarding school.

There are two main meanings of boarder, but they both involve staying somewhere away from home. A boarding school is a private school where students live as well as study. Those students are called boarders. Also, if someone rents a room of their house to guests, the guests are boarders. Holden Caulfield, the main character of "Catcher in the Rye," was a boarder; that is, until he got thrown out of Pencey Prep.

Definitions of boarder

1. noun

   a tenant in someone’s house who typically receives meals from the owner as part of the arrangement
   synonyms: lodger, roomer

   type of:

   renter, tenant

   someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else
2. noun

   a pupil who lives at school during term time
   type of:

   pupil, school-age child, schoolchild

   a young person attending school (up through senior high school)
3. noun

   someone who forces their way aboard ship
   “stand by to repel boarders”

   type of:

   interloper, intruder, trespasser

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