goofball

[goof-bawl]

noun

Slang.

1. an extremely incompetent, eccentric, or silly person.

2. a pill containing a barbiturate or a tranquilizing drug.

goofball

/ ˈɡuːfˌbɔːl /

noun

1. a barbiturate sleeping pill

2. a fool

Word History and Origins

Origin of goofball¹

First recorded in 1935–40; goof + ball ¹

Example Sentences

In a couple of weeks Cooper Jr.’s catch will be poorly “recreated” at Thanksgiving touch football games by out of shape goofballs like me who have no business playing any football.

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By the time the teen got home, she was embracing the spud as a kind of goofball Halloween badge of honor.

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Yet in “John Candy: A Life in Comedy,” Paul Myers makes the case that the actor, who died at 43 in 1994, was more than a good-natured goofball.

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Casting Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, stars of the goofball comedy “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” sounds like an idea dreamed up by undergraduate theater nerds smoking strong weed.

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These affectionate goofballs, with their perfect wrinkly cheeks and jowls, will bring a tremendous amount of love into your life.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• geek