[F. flâneur, f. flâner: see prec.] A lounger or saunterer, an idle ‘man about town.’
1872. E. Braddon, Life in India, vi. 236. He will affect a knowledge of London life that only comes to the regular flâneur after years of active experience.
1876. Ouida, Winter City, vi. 149. There are a freedom and simplicity in all the habits of an Italian noble that are in strong contrast with the formal conventionalism of the ways of other men; there is a feudal affectionateness of relation between him and his dependants which is not like anything else; when he knows anything of agriculture, and interests himself personally in his people, the result is an existence which makes the life of the Paris flâneurs and the London idlers look very poor indeed.
