booby
/ˈbuːbi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.98 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
noun
Any of various large tropical seabirds from the genera Sula and Papasula in the family Sulidae, traditionally considered to be stupid.
noun
In the game of croquet, a ball that has not passed through the first wicket.
verb
To install a booby trap on or at (something); to attack (someone) with a booby trap.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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)."
- "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..."
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)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
boobies (plural)
boobies (present, singular)
boobying (participle, present)
boobied (participle, past)
boobied (past)
more booby (comparative)
most booby (superlative)
boobier (comparative)
boobiest (superlative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
Abbott's booby
Papasula abbotti
blue-faced booby
blue-footed booby
Sula nebouxii
booby prize
booby trap
Brewster's booby