booby
1 Americannoun
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boobies
plural
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a stupid person; dunce.
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a gannet of the genus Sula, having a bright bill, bright feet, or both: some are endangered.
noun
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boobies
plural
noun
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an ignorant or foolish person
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the losing player in a game
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any of several tropical marine birds of the genus Sula : family Sulidae , order Pelecaniformes (pelicans, cormorants, etc). They have a straight stout bill and the plumage is white with darker markings Compare gannet
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of booby1
1590–1600; earlier pooby, apparently blend of poop to befool (now obsolete) and baby; booby 1 ( def. 2 ) perhaps by association with Spanish bobo < Latin balbus stuttering
Origin of booby2
1930–35, probably variant of earlier bubby
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:
Locals redirected the Allies to nearby Licata and told them about “beach minefields, maritime conditions, and port-installation booby traps.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
According to police, often the sites targeted are remote, treacherous even, and reminiscent of an Indiana Jones expedition - minus the booby traps.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2025
When I asked a senior White House official if they could speak to whether or not similar booby traps were contained in American communication devices I was rebuked; “I can’t speak to that.”
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2024
Ours pointed out fluffy booby hatchlings in the low branches of trees on one motu, and showed us up close the massive coconut crabs whose kind is coming back from the vanishing point.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
Each soldier was paired up with a dog to track enemies through the jungle, search villages, and walk point looking for booby traps or snipers.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
The best sequence in the whole film is their encounter with two posh suburbanites who simply can’t imagine they’re in danger, bounding right up to them like the Galapagos Islands’ blue-footed boobies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025
Their modelling shows that if rats were removed from these 25 islands that could result in populations of lesser noddies, sooty terns and red-footed boobies recovering to nearly 24,000 breeding pairs -- an 18-fold increase.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2024
Researchers have observed siblings killing each other—siblicide—in many kinds of birds, including Verreaux’s eagles, ospreys, and blue-footed boobies.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 15, 2024
The Galápagos Islands are famed as a bizarre menagerie of blue-footed boobies, giant tortoises and seafaring iguanas.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 2, 2023
All were occupied by blue-footed boobies, big birds with star- dingly blue feet.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
