Boche
Americannoun
noun
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a German, esp a German soldier
-
(usually functioning as plural) Germans collectively, esp German soldiers regarded as the enemy
Sensitive Note
This term was originally French slang, perhaps from the Franco-Prussian War. In English, it appears today only in historical contexts.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Boche
First recorded in 1885–90; from French; of uncertain origin; possibly a shortening of Alboche, Alleboche “German,” equivalent to al(emand) “German” + (ca)boche “cabbage, blockhead, head of a nail”
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:
“This is Hollywood. This is Los Angeles. Let them film. This is what they do here,” said Abraham Boche, a local resident.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 26, 2022
From a base hospital, one suffering doughboy was O.K. with his mother learning that “a Boche shell has played the devil with my beauty.”
From New York Times ● May 12, 2018
The youngest girl staying at the safe house is 10-year-old Boche.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2015
The band also hired booking agent David "Boche" Viecelli, whose Chicago-based company, Billions, had earned a reputation for shrewd bookings and personal artist relationships with bands like Pavement.
From Reuters ● Jul. 6, 2010
Sometime after that they got rid of Tommy, but Boche is always there to amuse us when we go downstairs.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
“We like to see each other’s lives and foibles and accidents,” says Edward Boches, a professor of advertising at Boston University.
From Time ● Feb. 20, 2014
Fentress and Bryan Boches, a Medley managing director, also met with then U.S.
From BusinessWeek ● Feb. 27, 2012
"We do not think in terms of locking someone in," says Ed Boches, public affairs director of Data General, a Massachusetts computer manufacturer.
From Time Magazine Archive
Nothing but his irrepressible spirits and lion-hearted courage would have held up this great host of Boches armed with new and strange implements of war and with every weapon known to science.
From War Letters of a Public-School Boy by Jones, Henry Paul Mainwaring
He mistook my meaning, and replied with a laugh: 'Oh, you were saved by that chap who took thirty Boches British prisoners.
From "The Pomp of Yesterday" by Hocking, Joseph
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.
