booby
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbuːbi/
rhymes: -uːbi
Forms: form: boobies
Etymology: 17th century. From Spanish bobo, from Latin balbus (“stammering”).
Senses: examples: text: A Frenchman, in his own Country, would dress a fine Dinner of twenty Dishes, and all genteel and pretty, for the Expence he will put an English Lord to for dressing one Dish. But then there is the little petty Profit. [...] So much is the blind Folly of this Age, that they would rather be impos'd on by a French Booby, than give Encouragement to a good English Cook!
ref: 1747, Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, page iii:
text: The daughter is said to be well-bred and beautiful; the son an awkward booby, reared up and spoiled at his mother's apron-string.
ref: 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, act I:
text: As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.
ref: 1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter I, in Walden, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co, published 1910, page 74:
text: She knotted our ribbons very tightly so that we should not lose them,—they pulled the little hairs under our curls and made us "ooch" and wriggle. Then Dede gave us little smacks and called us boobies.
ref: 1942, Emily Carr, “How Lizzie Was Shamed Right Through”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:
text: Then at the last minute Harris was brought aboard as Dr. Zachary Smith, initially an authentic, lip-curling nogoodnik who, it was presently discovered, could be better used for laughs played off Mumy and a sober-sided robot (“You bubbleheaded booby,” sneers Harris. “That does not compute,” returns the robot dryly).
ref: 1966 September 24, TV Guide, Radnor, Pa., page 25, column 1:
synonyms: word: alcatote
word: asshat
word: arsehole
word: asshole
word: bayard
word: berk
word: birdbrain
word: blither
word: bobchin
word: bonehead
word: bozo
word: buffoon
word: brickhead
word: Charlie
word: chucklehead
word: chowderhead
word: chump
word: clart
word: clown
word: der-brain
word: dill pickle
word: dim bulb
word: dingleberry
word: dipshit
word: dipstick
word: dirtbrain
word: div
word: divvo
word: divvy
word: dolt
word: donk
word: doodle
word: doofus
word: dope
word: dork
word: dote
word: dotterel
word: dullard
word: dumbass
word: dumbbell
word: dumb fuck
word: dummy
word: dunce
word: dunderhead
word: dupe
word: fathead
word: fenderhead
word: fiddle
word: fuckwit
word: fuzznut
word: geck
word: gig
word: gink
word: goober
word: gooseberry
word: gowk
word: gubbins
word: gump
word: ha'p'orth
word: Homer Simpson
word: ignoramus
word: imbecile
word: jamoke
word: jerk
word: jerkoff
word: jolterhead
word: jolthead
word: juggins
word: jughead
word: knucklehead
word: lamebrain
word: mameluke (US (Italian-American)
word: slang)
word: maroon
word: meathead
word: mong
word: moron
word: mug
word: muggins
word: mushhead
word: nimrod
word: nincompoop
word: nit
word: nitwit
word: not the sharpest knife in the drawer
word: numskull
word: numps
word: numpty
word: nupson
word: oaf
word: pillock
word: pinhead
word: plonker
word: prat
word: retard
word: shit for brains
word: shithead
word: shitwit
word: schmo
word: schmuck
word: snapperhead
word: softhead
word: sot
word: stupid
word: sucker
word: thickhead
word: tonto
word: tool
word: tosser
word: tosspot
word: twat
word: twerp
word: twit
word: wally
word: wantwit
word: wazzock
word: yampy
glosses: A stupid person.
examples: text: At which time, ſome Boobyes, weary of flight, made our Ship their pearch, an animall ſo ſimple as ſuffers any to take her without feare, as if a ſtupid ſenſe made her careleſſe of danger...
ref: 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:
text: We found on St. Paul's only two kinds of birds—the booby and the noddy. The former is a species of gannet, and the latter a tern. Both are of a tame and stupid disposition, and are so unaccustomed to visitors, that I could have killed any number of them with my geological hammer.
ref: 1839, Robert FitzRoy, Phillip Parker King, Charles Darwin, chapter I, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
synonyms: sulid
glosses: Any of various large tropical seabirds from the genera Sula and Papasula in the gannet family Sulidae, traditionally considered to be stupid.
examples: text: A booby may displace another booby or a bridged ball by roquet, ricochet, or concussion.
ref: 1863, Mayne Reid, Croquet, London: C.J. Skeet, page 33:
glosses: In the game of croquet, a ball that has not passed through the first wicket.
Derived terms: Abbott's booby
Papasula abbotti
blue-footed booby
Sula nebouxii
boob
boobyish
boobyism
booby prize
booby trap
Brewster's booby
brown booby
Sula leucogaster
masked booby
Sula dactylatra
Nazca booby
Sula granti
Peruvian booby
Sula variegata
red-footed booby
Sula sula
Tasman booby
Sula dactylatra tasmani
booby hatch
booby-hatch
booby house
booby hut
booby hutch
booby-trap
booby-trapped
hankin booby