booby
A stupid person.
Adjective informal
- Displaying breasts prominently.
- If it's too tight, I don't want the fat coming out heeya?' She points to the danger spot, where upper arm brushes against glorious bosom, and the top of a strapless dress can cut an unsightly line. 'Am I very booby? Do...
- We did a photoshoot the week before and she took the dress from the shoot and said: "I want to wear this for the awards next week. Her publicist was like, "Don't you think it's a bit 'booby' for a kids event?" But she...
- Everyone has their paranoias. And we all chip in, swap handbags and jewellery, and offer lots of support when one or another is having doubts about their frock. 'Wow, you look amazing!' 'Aw, I think I look a bit booby.'...
- Having large breasts.
- Can I borrow your pink lacey bra? Why? You're like three sizes boobier than me? - 2021 June 10, Lucy Vine, Bad Choices: The most hilarious book about female friendship you’ll read this year!, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
Origin
Etymology tree English boob Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English booby From boob + -y.
Forms
Adjective obsolete, slang
- Stupid; unintelligent.
- When we arrived at the houſe, I was in the utmoſt confuſion; for the booby ſervants ſtood gaping and grinning at my diſtreſs, and Sir Sampſson himſelf told me, with a laugh as horrible as Caliban's, that he would lend...
Synonyms: boobish boobily addlebrained addlepated airheaded bee-brained beef-witted beefheaded beetle-headed birdbrained blockheaded Boeotian boneheaded boofheaded braindead brainless bubbleheaded buffle-headed bullet-headed cerebrally challenged childish chowderheaded chuckleheaded crackbrained
Origin
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)).
Forms
Noun Entry 3
- A stupid person.
- 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....
- 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. - 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, act I:
- 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...
Synonyms: alcatote asshat arsehole asshole bayard berk birdbrain blither bobchin bonehead bozo buffoon brickhead Charlie chucklehead chowderhead chump clart clown der-brain dill pickle dim bulb dimwit dingleberry
- Any of various large tropical seabirds from the genera Sula and Papasula in the family Sulidae, traditionally considered to be stupid.
- 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... - 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert,...
- 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...
- Boobies are powerful, aerobatic fliers, and they can be challenging to photograph. - 2021, Peter Cavanagh, “5. Large Waterbirds”, in 100 Flying Birds: Photographing the Mechanics of Flight, →ISBN, page 114:
- In the game of croquet, a ball that has not passed through the first wicket.
- A booby may displace another booby or a bridged ball by roquet, ricochet, or concussion. - 1863, Mayne Reid, Croquet, London: C.J. Skeet, page 33:
Forms
Derived
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
Noun childish, colloquial
- A breast.
- At ten o’clock she was lying on the divan with her boobies in her hands. - 1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, Grove Press, published 1961:
- Got my neck, got my boobies / Got my heart, got my soul / Got my back, I got my sex - 1968, “Ain't Got No, I Got Life”, in 'Nuff Said!, performed by Nina Simone:
- She is beyond hot: her long, black, curly hair cascades around her naked boobies! - 2008, Richard Uhlig, Boy Minus Girl:
Origin
From the earlier form bubby.
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To behave stupidly; to act like a booby.
- Who lounge and who loot, and who booby about, / No knowledge within, and no manners without; - 1824, Washington Irving, “Proclamation”, in Salmagundi, volume 1:
- To install a booby trap on or at (something); to attack (someone) with a booby trap.
- Self Boobied. Donald E. Campbell of Merritt Island, Fla., accidentally tripped on one of the shotgun shell booby traps he had installed - 1976, “Weekly Almanac”, in Jet, volume 22, page 44: