kibosh
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: The origin of the noun is uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested:
* According to Gerald Leonard Cohen, Stephen Goranson, and Matthew Little, at present the most likely derivation is as a non-rhotic variant of kurbash (“heavy whip, lash”), from Arabic كُرْبَاج (kurbāj, “lash, whip”), or from its etymon Ottoman Turkish قرباچ (kırbaç, “lash, whip”) (whence Turkish kırbaç (“whip”)).
* From Irish caidhp bháis (literally “death cap”), said to denote, among other things, the black cap worn by English judges when pronouncing the death sentence, the hood put on a person before they were put to death by hanging, or a form of torture called pitchcapping. However, there appears to be no convincing evidence that the term was used in these senses.
* From a Yiddish word (compare Hebrew כָּבַשׁ (kavásh, “to conquer, subjugate”)); however, no such word has been found.
* From Middle English cabochen (“to cut off (the head, chiefly of a deer), behead”), from Middle French cabocher (“to cut off (the head)”), from caboche (“the head”) (Northern France, informal) (whence Middle English caboche (“head of cabbage”)), from Italian capocchia (“the head”) (derogatory), ultimately from Latin caput (“the head”). The Middle English word is said to have been adopted in Cockney slang; however, how this is supposed to have happened remains unexplained
* A clogmakers’ term kibosh (“iron bar about a foot long that, when hot, is used to soften and smooth leather”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Inflected forms:
form: cabosh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: kaibosh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: kibbosh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: kiebosh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: kybosh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: kyebosh
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: kiboshes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: kiboshing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: kiboshed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: kiboshed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: cabosh
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: kaibosh
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: kibbosh
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: kiebosh
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: kybosh
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: kyebosh
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Chiefly in put on the kibosh or put the kibosh on: something which checks or restrains.
pos: noun
tags: slang
uncountable
examples: “What do you mean by hussies?” interrupted a champion of the other party, who has evinced a strong inclination to get up a branch fight on her own account. (“Hoo-roa,” ejaculates a pot-boy in a parenthesis, “put the kye-bosh on her, Mary.”)
Once or twice triumphant memories of the earlier incidents nerve his face for awhile. "I put the ky-bosh on his little game," he remarks.
It's one of my little chores as private secretary to smell out these revolutions and affix the kibosh before they break out and scratch the paint off the government property.
The right plan would be to put the complete kybosh (if I may use the expression) on your chances of becoming an alderman.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Gob, that puts the bloody kybosh on it if old sloppy eyes is mucking up the show.
George put the kibosh on the Kirov case and now he's trying to get it right, flying solo in his old age.
I know because I worked with the Home Office and the service for many years to accomplish what became the envy of the world. It was being dismantled long before [Theresa] May took office – [David] Blunkett started the rot – but May has the ultimate kibosh.
gloss: To decisively put a stop to or terminate (someone or something).
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
examples: Philly Kiboshes Blackout Tutoring [title] […] Plan of the Pennsylvania State Council of Defense to ring in a State-wide network of 45 stations for an "educational" blackout test, was nixed by the Office of Censorship after it was okayed by the Third Service Command of the army. Skedded for Thursday (8), purpose of the broadcast was to educate public with air raid warning signals and all Pennsylvanians were urged to listen to instructions as broadcast.
Deal for network star Henry Morgan to sign a Majestic contract for two albums has fallen thru, with Paul Baron, newly-named artist and repertoire topper at the diskery, kiboshing a deal that virtually had been consummated between his predecessors and Music Corporation of America (MCA).
His second book is full of spirited advice on how to do business deals. According to [Mark] McCormack, this often amounts to keeping lawyers from kiboshing the deal.
But this discovery, as cheering as it was, also kiboshed the hypothesis about different-colored varieties of H. simus in different reasons, because the dozen animals at Kianjavato were charcoal gray, just as [Patricia] Wright had originally expected.
At which point, Mrs Arbuthnot enters to kibosh her son's prospects, only to be told, when the family facts emerge, that she should marry the high-born roué who has ruined her.
It appears some chump at Revenue and Customs has, against all rules, put a disc or discs containing 25 million child benefit records – names, addresses, National Insurance numbers, bank account details, the lot – in the post and inevitably it has gone missing. […] As several people pointed out, with particular reference to ID cards, this kiboshes any notion that confidential information is safe in government hands.
Fortunately the FA [Football Association], in a rare moment of decisiveness, stepped in to kibosh the plan.
Extensive highlights from Glastonbury, an Allied mission to kibosh the German A-bomb and a homage to Arthur Ashe.
Superman bashed Bavarians and kiboshed Krauts with a mix of solemn consecration, righteous anger and cathartic glee.
Translations: