Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a fortune-hunter or womanizer who works his charms in the lounges of hotels.

1917		N.Y. Times 16 May 22: They have heard of the lounge lizards.
1917		Sun (NY) 13 Apr. 14/4: No patriot will weep over the dispersal of the dancing masters of the restaurant [...] War engulfs the tango lizard and the lounge snake.
1919		Marlborough Exp. (NZ) 29 Nov. 8/1: The ‘lounge lizard’ is a male type which infests dance resorts.
1919		A. Baer Two & Three 4 Nov. [synd. col.] All the old time buffet lizards are getting desperate. Most of ’em are getting married.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 149: The lounge-lizards worried over whether the government would permit the English-cut uniform for officers.
1924		Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 37: Two lounge serpents named Morris and Bartlett.
1925		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Apr. 13/7: The money Dad periled his soul to amass she is wasting on a pimply, egg-headed blue-tongued lounge lizard.
1929		Eve. Post (Wellington) 4 Feb. 13/3: Others think the sensuous steps of the ‘lounge lizard’are ‘too divine and thrilling’.
1932		D.L. Sayers Have His Carcase 152: Makes a chap look a bit of a fool when his mother proposes to give him a twenty-year old lounge lizard for a step-papa.
1948		Arizona Republican 2 Mar. 6/2: He is apparently a typical gold-plated lounge-lizard over whelmed with a sense of his own superiority [DA].
1958		E. Dundy Dud Avocado (1960) 111: Anti-phoney, anti-tourist, anti-lounge lizard, pro-student, pro-worker.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 102: Dagga [...] was being used in increasing measure by young men, known as ‘jazz hounds’ and ‘lounge lizards’.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 18: Too much of the lounge lizard, Rudolph Valentino type.
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 44: Hey baby – you letting this here slick-haired lounge lizard lay you?
1988		G. Tate ‘Public Enemy’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 121: The prevailing atmosphere at the Stardust was fraternal, familial, even lounge-lizard casual.
1999		P. McCabe Mondo Desperado 16: But for every silver fox, lounge lizard and lowdown jazz rat in town.
2000		Guardian Editor 7 Jan. 19: A website for the wannabe lounge lizard.
2003		K. Cage Gayle.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 113: The stench of the lounge lizards returning home after partying [...] drenched in sweat, tequila shooter runoff and gallons of overapplied Drakkar Noir cologne.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 151: He was tight with [...] lounge lizard Norm Krause.

2. a poor or miserly man who would rather court a woman in her own house than take her out on the town [note University of Missouri use (in 1931), the synon. sofa lizard].

1923		G. McKnight Eng. Words 62: The young man who does not take his girl about is a chair-warmer, a lounge lizard.
1973		A. Bennett Habeus Corpus Act I: Get out, you lounge lizard.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 102: Seventeen years old and a truant who associates with lounge lizards!

(Aus./US) a womanizer, an adventurer; usu. in pl. lounge lice.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 96: She had chased her share of brassy guys out of the office, ad-space salesmen and small-time agents and the usual studio lounge-lice.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 235/2: lounge louse – ‘lounge lizard’.