blooper
Americannoun
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bloopers
plural
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Informal. an embarrassing or humorous mistake, as one spoken live over a radio or television broadcast or one recorded during the filming of a movie, television show, etc..
At the end of each season, the cast gathers to watch all the hilarious bloopers that were edited out along the way.
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Radio. a receiving set that generates from its antenna radio-frequency signals that interfere with other nearby receivers.
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Baseball.
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Also called bloop, looper, Texas leaguer. a fly ball that carries just beyond the infield, where it is out of catching range for both the infielders and the outfielders, resulting in a hit for the batter.
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Also blooper ball a pitched ball that travels in a high arc before deceptively dropping into the strike zone.
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noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of blooper
First recorded in 1925–30; bloop + -er 1, originally in reference to a radio receiver that emits bloops
Explanation
A blooper is a mistake, especially an embarrassing one that's witnessed by other people. Your professor may be famous for his colorful bow ties and his frequent bloopers. You can use the word blooper to describe any gaffe or faux pas that makes you blush. Often films and TV shows will keep a reel of bloopers that were caught on camera — generally mistakes or flubbed lines by actors. The word was first used in the 1940s in the theater world, from US baseball slang, meaning "a high fly ball that an outfielder doesn't catch."
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:
But it ends with a blooper shot where Burnham fumbles to catch the helmet and bursts out laughing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Battered, bruised and well beaten, Smith had coughed up a horrendous blooper for Sale's sixth try, failing to gather a routine backfield ball to allow a chasing Raffi Quirke to dot down.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025
But minutes later in the fourth, any momentum from that blast disappeared when right fielder Teoscar Hernández inexplicably dove in front of a Daulton Varsho blooper and turned it into a triple.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025
Villarreal: I want to see the blooper reel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2024
The blooper was too unbelievable to keep secret for more than a few minutes.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
But the Wayanses are having an evident good time working together, as underscored by the bloopers that run under the closing credits — and what more do you want from them, really?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024
For MIT engineers, the lunar bloopers also highlight an opportunity to innovate.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
In the bloopers, he clanks about 20 beforehand.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
Click to watch the best of the bloopers.
From BBC ● May 8, 2023
It was a collection of sports bloopers, and guess who they saved for last.
From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
