booby prize

American  

noun

1. a prize given in good-natured ridicule to the worst player or team in a game or contest.

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booby prize British  

noun

1. a mock prize given to the person having the lowest score or giving the worst performance in a competition

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Etymology

Origin of booby prize

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

I really appreciate it in the book that you were not going to talk about becoming the "wise, sage woman" like it's some kind of booby prize.

From Salon • May 6, 2023

I think that the situation is exactly the opposite, and that a “diminished” girl does not go running through the town, under so many horse noses, to find a booby prize.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 20, 2018

Any other week, “Gettin’ the Band Back Together” would have locked up Broadway’s booby prize, but it looks positively adequate by comparison with “Pretty Woman.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 17, 2018

Of the Ivies to which Malia is reportedly applying, the faculty treatment booby prize actually goes to her father’s alma mater.

From Slate • Oct. 13, 2015

The booby prize, after all, had been the foundation of his success.

From Skookum Chuck Fables Bits of History, Through the Microscope by Cumming, R. D. (Robert Dalziel)