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Synonyms

boo-boo

American  
[boo-boo] / ˈbuˌbu /

noun

Slang.
  • boo-boos
    plural
  1. a minor injury; owie.

    My dad was doing dishes and kissing boo-boos way back in the 1960s.

  2. a stupid or silly mistake; blunder.

    Even people with loads of sewing experience make boo-boos when creating a piece!

    Synonyms:
    slip-up, slip, screwup, goof, fumble, fluff, flub

boo-boo British  

noun

  1. informal an embarrassing mistake; blunder

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of boo-boo

An Americanism dating back to 1950–55; baby talk

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:

Widely ridiculed on social media for his lack of knowledge, Mr Harris apologised for what he described as an "awful boo-boo".

From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2024

It might be your internet company’s fault, a boo-boo with your home equipment or interference from your neighbor’s Call of Duty game night.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2023

Some attestation forms seem impractical, requiring parents to interview their pre-school-age children about their health, when some that age can’t distinguish between a boo-boo and a sore throat.

From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2022

“Then everybody put a boo-boo on that. They said: ‘What are you doing, ratting on about that?’

From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2020

When he was three and fell on a stick in our driveway, I was the one who took him inside and got a Band-Aid and his boo-boo bunny.

From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick

“We have so many animals that have boo-boos in our book,” a brown-haired woman said in a singsong voice, holding up a book called “All Better!”

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2023

Obviously, there were some boo-boos and things that I can definitely work on and fix by the time I do my individual.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 7, 2022

She has also gotten a couple of mulligans on biographical boo-boos.

From Fox News ● Oct. 9, 2019

Epic Fails of 2016 This new special surveys some of the biggest pop-culture boo-boos and celebrity blunders of the past 12 months.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2016

“Myrna Minkoff? Don’t gimme that foolishness, Ignatius. That girl’s in New York. I know you, boy. You musta really pulled some boo-boos at that Levy Pants.”

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

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