noggin
Americannoun
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a small cup or mug.
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a small amount of alcoholic liquor, usually a gill.
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Informal. a person's head.
noun
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a small quantity of spirits, usually 1 gill
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a small mug or cup
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an informal word for head
Etymology
Origin of noggin
First recorded in 1620–30; origin uncertain
Explanation
Your noggin is your head. If you're not paying attention during a volleyball game, the ball might hit you right on the noggin. Your goofy uncle might say, "Let's put our noggins together and think of something fun to do today!" He means your brains, or your heads, of course. Noggin is an informal, slightly silly way to say "head." It's only had this meaning in American English since the 1860s. Earlier, noggin was slang for "a small cup, mug, or drink" in a dialect of British English. The word is still used this way in Scottish and Irish English.
Vocabulary lists containing noggin
And Then, Boom!
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Road Home
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Compound Fracture
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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.
That figure includes subscribers to BET+ and the Noggin children’s app, in addition to Paramount+ and Showtime.
From Reuters • Jan. 30, 2023
The face-value translation is “My Coconut,” but Veloso offers a more precise read while gently rapping his knuckles on the side of his head: “ ‘My Noggin.’
From Washington Post • Oct. 22, 2021
Festive fare will include a Halloween Cupcake and Halloween Sugar Cookie, plus a chocolate brownie confection named Nemo and Squirt’s Noggin Concoction and a Liquid Nitro Cake Pop.
From Fox News • Aug. 29, 2020
Next up is a special on Noggin, a Nick offshoot, to help parents cope, too.
From New York Times • Apr. 13, 2020
Noggin has persuaded them to halt, and, depend on it, he will try to escape with his wife.
From Dick Onslow Among the Redskins by Soper, 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.
