Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Resembling a booby; silly; stupid.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Stupid; dull.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective stupid; dull-witted

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

booby +‎ -ish

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Examples

  • Maria Friedman makes the innkeeper the epitome of narrow-minded prejudice, Jo Stone-Fewings embodies the idiocy of the local squirearchy and Teddy Kempner is the boobyish village bobby.

    The Invisible Man – review Michael Billington 2010

  • Two brutish and boobyish Titans -- they've wholly corrupted our morals,

    Punch Among the Planets Various

  • Mr. Hallam, whose judgment in such things is not often at fault, thinks Slender was intended as “a satire on the brilliant youth of the provinces,” such as they were “before the introduction of newspapers and turnpike roads; awkward and boobyish among civil people, but at home in rude sports, and proud of exploits at which the town would laugh, yet perhaps with more courage and good-nature than the laughers.”

    Shakespeare His Life Art And Characters Hudson, H N 1872

  • Mr. Hallam, whose judgment in such things is not often at fault, thinks Slender was intended as "a satire on the brilliant youth of the provinces," such as they were "before the introduction of newspapers and turnpike roads; awkward and boobyish among civil people, but at home in rude sports, and proud of exploits at which the town would laugh, yet perhaps with more courage and good-nature than the laughers."

    Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. With An Historical Sketch Of The Origin And Growth Of The Drama In England Henry Norman Hudson 1850

  • When I approached her, which I did with the reverence due to royalty, and expressed, though I believe but in very unintelligible terms, the mixture of surprize and pleasure with which my meeting her had inspired me — I endeavoured to be very polite; but was, I am persuaded, more boobyish in that moment, than I ever was in any preceding one, throughout my existence.

    Vicissitudes in Genteel Life 1794

  • He was to accumulate a batch of more heroic-sounding titles ” Pathfinder, Deerslayer, Hawkeye ” as if Cooper wished he hadn't initially stuck the poor man with such a boobyish name as "Bumppo."

    In the Heart of the Heartland Atwood, Margaret 2006

  • "I saw your desire of saving Madame Duval, and scarce could I refrain giving the brutal Captain my real opinion of his savage conduct; but I am unwilling to quarrel with him, lest I should be denied entrance into a house which you inhabit; I have been endeavouring to prevail with him to give up his absurd new scheme, but I find him impenetrable: – I have therefore determined to make a pretense for suddenly leaving this place, dear as it is to me, and containing all I most admire and adore; – and I will stay in town till the violence of this boobyish humour is abated."

    Evelina: or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance Into the World 1778

  • “I saw your desire of saving Madame Duval, and scarce could I refrain giving the brutal Captain my real opinion of his savage conduct; but I am unwilling to quarrel with him, lest I should be denied entrance into a house which you inhabit; I have been endeavouring to prevail with him to give up his absurd new scheme, but I find him impenetrable: — I have therefore determined to make a pretense for suddenly leaving this place, dear as it is to me, and containing all I most admire and adore; - and I will stay in town till the violence of this boobyish humour is abated.”

    Evelina 1778

  • I most admire and adore; - and I will stay in town till the violence of this boobyish humour is abated. "

    Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World Fanny Burney 1796

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