Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Resembling or characteristic of a boor; rude and clumsy in behavior.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Resembling a boor; clownish; rustic; awkward in manners; illiterate.
- Pertaining to or fit for a boor.
- Synonyms Boorish, Churlish, Clownish, Loutish. He who is boorish is so low-bred in habits and ways as to be positively offensive. He who is churlish offends by his language and manners, they being such as would naturally be found in one who is coarse and selfish, and therefore generally insolent or crusty and rough; the opposite of
kind and courteous: as, it is churlish to refuse to answer a civil question. The opposite ofboorish is refined or polite; the opposite ofclownish is elegant. Clownish is a somewhat weaker word than boorish, implying less that is disgusting in manner and speech; it often notes mere lack of refinement. The difference between clownish and loutish is that he who is clownish is generally stupid and sometimes ludicrous, while he who is loutish is perhaps slovenly and worthy of blame.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Like a boor; clownish; uncultured; unmannerly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Behaving as a
boor ; rough in manners;rude ;uncultured .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word boorish.
Examples
-
FDR was branded as a sick demented dictator, Truman was called a boorish drunk, Kennedy was a spineless commie dupe.
-
Mountains of northern Spain leave their poor country for a time for the richer provinces of Portugal and Spain, where they become porters, water-carriers and scavengers, and are known as boorish, but industrious and honest.
Influences of Geographic Environment On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography Ellen Churchill Semple 1897
-
If Americans acted this way, we'd be called boorish or jingoistic.
The News Tribune - Tacoma - - HOMEPAGE newstips@thenewstribune.com (PETER CALLAGHAN; STAF 2010
-
Philadelphia fans are known as boorish and hate-filled, frequently vilified by columnists too lazy to come up with something other than an incident when fans threw snowballs at Santa.
Philadelphia Will Do 2008
-
What kind of boorish, tastless clods subscribe to this blog anyway???
-
In fact, the Talmud describes the Zealots as biryonim, meaning "boorish" or "wild", and are condemned for their aggression, their unwillingness to compromise to save the survivors of besieged Jerusalem, and their blind-militarism.
-
I mean, is it this cartoonish that -- that he could just come out and forget about the merits of the argument one way or the other and just attack the messenger in this kind of boorish a way?
-
If this is the best you have, then vote for the 'boorish' McCain, you ignorant slouch.
-
Over the next seven decades, as pro sports increasingly became the city's remaining portal into the nation's consciousness, you could add the epithet "boorish" to "boring" -- there were snowballs at Santa Claus (sort of) and catcalls for just about anyone.
Will Bunch: How Philadelphia Got Its Groove Back -- And Why N.Y. Is Jealous 2009
-
This kind of boorish behaviour will only attract investigative efforts.
bilby commented on the word boorish
"'In my obituary,' he said to the two silent backs, 'they will write that he contributed two hundred million in taxes for the common good, and that he gave Denmark more free international publicity than Niels Bohr and a million pallets of bacon ever did. Nonetheless, the men who accompanied him - when he was taken away to torture and execution - were as boorish as hip-hop gangsters. And as unshaven as Indian swamis.'"
- 'The Quiet Girl', Peter Høeg.
March 19, 2008