adventurer

From adventure +‎ -er.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ædˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ.ɚ/

• Audio (US):

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adventurer (plural adventurers)

1. One who enjoys adventures.
   • 2013 January, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 22 January 2013, page 59:

     European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.

2. A person who seeks a fortune in new and possibly dangerous enterprises.
3. A soldier of fortune, a speculator.
4. A person who tries to advance their social position by somewhat devious means.
5. (video games) A player of adventure games or text adventures.
   • 1983 July, PC Mag, volume 2, number 2, page 351:

     Meanwhile, the ranks of adventurers grow, be they manic puzzle-solvers or people like me, who like to look under the Robners' beds just for the hell of it.

   • 1992, Tim Kemp, Microfair Madness (game review in Your Sinclair issue 75, March 1992)

     It's a challenging game for the inexperienced adventurer, and should even give the hardened pros a bit of a run for their money.

• (one who enjoys adventures): man of action
• (soldier of fortune): see Thesaurus:mercenary

• adventuress

• “adventurer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “adventurer”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.