kibosh
/ˈkaɪˌbɑʃ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.04 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Only used in put on the kibosh and put the kibosh on: something which checks or restrains.
Slang; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "“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."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: كُرْبَاج
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkaɪˌbɑʃ/
- British English: /ˈkaɪˌbɒʃ/
Usage
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Transitive verb
- British usage
- Obsolete