ˈishmēəl, -(ˌ)mā- noun
( -s )
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: after Ishmael (AV), Ismael (DV), son of Abraham by his concubine Hagar; from the statement made concerning him in Gen 16:12 (AV) that “his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him”
: one at odds with or as if with society : outcast , outlaw , outsider
I am an Ishmael by instinct — Samuel Butler †1902
the murder novel, … long the Ishmael of fiction, shows every sign of rejoining the main fold of literature — Anthony Boucher