ballyhoo
Americannoun
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ballyhoos
plural
verb (used with or without object)
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ballyhoos,
present (3rd person singular)
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ballyhooed,
past participle, past
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ballyhooing
present participle
noun
-
a noisy, confused, or nonsensical situation or uproar
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sensational or blatant advertising or publicity
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ballyhoosimple
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ballyhoossimple
-
have ballyhooedperfect
-
has ballyhooedperfect
-
am ballyhooingprogressive
-
are ballyhooingprogressive
-
is ballyhooingprogressive
-
have been ballyhooingperfect progressive
-
has been ballyhooingperfect progressive
Past
-
ballyhooedsimple
-
had ballyhooedperfect
-
was ballyhooingprogressive
-
were ballyhooingprogressive
-
had been ballyhooingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ballyhoo
An Americanism dating back to 1830–40; of uncertain origin
Explanation
The word ballyhoo is both a noun and a verb that refers to making a big, noisy fuss about something. Promoters might ballyhoo a new store opening by plastering the airwaves with ads and throwing a big parade on opening day. Ballyhoo is all about being loud and flashy, creating an attention-grabbing spectacle. The term originated in early 20th-century slang to describe the loud carnival barkers yelling out exaggerated pronouncements when trying to drum up a crowd for a sideshow or attraction. Over time, it came to mean any hype or commotion to promote something. Using the word as a noun, you could say, "Despite all the ballyhoo, the movie was a box office flop." As a verb, you might say, "The bookstore ballyhooed the arrival of the last book in the popular series."
Vocabulary lists containing ballyhoo
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“The noble art of ballyhoo, which had flourished so successfully in the nineteen-twenties, had lost something of its vigor,” he mourns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
This L.A. was the self-invented mirage city of unflagging ballyhoo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2023
After so much preseason ballyhoo around the teaming of James, Davis and Westbrook, the trio managed to play in only 21 games together — and went 11-10.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2022
“That was one of the places that my father used to stand outside in his outfit to ballyhoo all these movies,” she recalled.
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2022
Did you ever roll to grog on board your greasy ballyhoo of blazes?
From White Jacket or, the World on a Man-of-War by Melville, Herman
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” a goofy seventh installment that rattles along well enough until the wheels fall off, ballyhoos an evolution: a biomechanical gorilla who calls himself Optimus Primal.
From New York Times ● Jun. 8, 2023
Hudson introduces a snappy, new low-price six, the Traveler, ballyhoos its independent front wheel suspension with centre point steering.
From Time Magazine Archive
Newspaper editors are not as a rule fond of pressagents, but Dexter Fellows is a pressagent extraordinary, and he ballyhoos the most widely beloved of U. S. businesses.
From Time Magazine Archive
He ballyhoos his box tops in such periodicals as Contest Magazine and Contest World News.
From Time Magazine Archive
An expression in our faces as we drift by the fastidious ballyhoos of the shop windows.
From A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago by Hecht, Ben
Meanwhile, the ballyhooed metaverse—or something equivalent to an all-encompassing virtual world—could bring more-stunning changes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Are the company’s new ballyhooed protections up for the task of keeping kids safe?
From Slate ● May 17, 2026
Tens of thousands of people are now making their way to New York City’s Times Square to participate in the ballyhooed New Year’s Eve ball-drop event and mark the start of 2026.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 31, 2025
In the clip, a young woman confronts him at one of his ballyhooed “debate” appearances on college campuses.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2025
And all of the ballyhooed techniques used by the armies of market researchers at CBS utterly failed to distinguish between these two very different emotions.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
This was the only article I found ballyhooing that nearly half of us drink white wine at room temperature.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2022
Then forward to Samuel Bowles, now-forgotten editor of Massachusetts’s Springfield Republican, whom Drabelle credits with salvaging, then ballyhooing Olmsted’s lost recommendations.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2021
Mr. Weissmann in 2003 brought charges against executives for ballyhooing the development of internet products to drive up the share price and make an insider stock killing.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 22, 2017
Still, NBC is ballyhooing the season’s kickoff game of Kansas City at New England as the 200th regular-season telecast in its “Sunday Night Football” package.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 1, 2017
"That boy Paul's worth all these ballyhooing highbrows put together," he muttered; and, "I'd like to get away from—everything."
From Babbitt by Lewis, Sinclair
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
