booby
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: 17th century. From Spanish bobo, from Latin balbus (“stammering”).
(bird): Compare typologically Translingual Morus, German Tölpel, Polish głuptak (akin to głupek), Russian о́луша (óluša) (akin to о́лух (ólux)).
Inflected forms:
form: boobies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: boobies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: boobying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: boobied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: boobied
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A stupid person.
pos: noun
examples: 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!
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.
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.
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.
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).
gloss: Any of various large tropical seabirds from the genera Sula and Papasula in the family Sulidae, traditionally considered to be stupid.
pos: noun
examples: 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...
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.
Boobies are powerful, aerobatic fliers, and they can be challenging to photograph.
gloss: In the game of croquet, a ball that has not passed through the first wicket.
pos: noun
examples: A booby may displace another booby or a bridged ball by roquet, ricochet, or concussion.
gloss: To behave stupidly; to act like a booby.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
rare
examples: Who lounge and who loot, and who booby about, / No knowledge within, and no manners without;
gloss: To install a booby trap on or at (something); to attack (someone) with a booby trap.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Self Boobied. Donald E. Campbell of Merritt Island, Fla., accidentally tripped on one of the shotgun shell booby traps he had installed
Derived words: Abbott's booby
Papasula abbotti
blue-footed booby
Sula nebouxii
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
boob
Translations: