adjective
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dazed or confused
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experiencing dizziness, nausea, etc
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of woozy
An Americanism first recorded in 1895–1900; perhaps short for boozy-woozy, rhyming compound based on boozy
Explanation
If you're feeling dizzy and a little bit sick, you can say you're woozy. You're going to feel slightly woozy after you get your wisdom teeth removed, so be sure to have someone drive you home and look after you. Woozy was first recorded in the 1890s as being student slang, used to mean "foolish or behind the times" and occasionally (and confusingly) "delightful." Soon after this, the current meaning of "muddled or dazed" appeared in informal North American speech. Feel free to use it for anyone who's lightheaded or dazed: "She felt woozy on the beach from all that sun."
Vocabulary lists containing woozy
Crash
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Lawn Boy
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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.
"It's going to take me a little while before I'm up to stage performance level," she said, adding that medicines she's taking were making her light-headed and woozy.
From Barron's • May 4, 2026
Yet I preferred the woozy, uncertain setup of the first half to the payoff of the second, when Conor must figure out the secrets of the videogame on his way to the creepy castle.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 8, 2026
“It felt like the woozy feeling you get when you’re in an elevator.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2024
"I felt woozy at first, then the world started spinning. I started to feel sick, had a lack of control, I didn’t even know where I was, or what was going on," said Ms Baker.
From BBC • Jul. 22, 2024
Honey replaced the blood in Herbie’s woozy veins.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
