blooper
Americannoun
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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
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.
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
The defense was a blooper reel, committing three penalties on the same play.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 29, 2025
Its fraternal spirit reminded me of the blooper reels you’d see at the end of the Burt Reynolds movies made by director Hal Needham who, yes, began his career as a stunt double.
From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2024
Leody Taveras didn’t wait for two strikes, he swung at the first pitch, hitting a soft blooper off the end of the bat that found grass in right field for another RBI single.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 30, 2023
On the third pitch, I went into a long, elaborate windup and sent him a slow, curving blooper, the kind a batter always wants to hit and always misses.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
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.
