boob

• IPA^(key): /ˈbuːb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːb

Clipped form of booby (“fool”). Appeared near the beginning of the twentieth century; more information at booby § Etymology 1.

boob (plural boobs)

1. (informal, derogatory) Idiot, fool.
   • 1914, George Vere Hobart, Boobs, as Seen by John Henry, OCLC 14521032, page 75:

     Not having an ear for music it annoys me to hear the boobs squeal.

   • 2013: US Magazine

     He said he felt like such a boob in school and nobody talked to him.

boob (not comparable)

1. (informal, derogatory) Idiotic, foolish.
   • 1971, Robert Beck, The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim, →ISBN, page 220:

     Brother, to survive we must strip our total beings of any boob black bourgeoisie values and creampuff attitudes toward the horror in America which we might have absorbed.

boob (third-person singular simple present boobs, present participle boobing, simple past and past participle boobed)

1. To behave stupidly; to act like a boob.
   • 1969, Colin Watson, The Flaxborough Chronicle, OCLC 26730196, page 250:

     After three hits his cleverness ran out. He boobed.

2. (informal, intransitive) To make a mistake
   • 1969, “Alchemy”, in The Canadian Forum, volume 49, page 211:

     ...the younger generation will not altogether be grateful for the book in which they are contained — especially when he boobs in calling the Weavers a rock ensemble.

Clipped form of booby (“breast”). Appeared around 1945; more information at booby § Etymology 2.

boob (plural boobs)

1. (colloquial, slang) A breast, especially that of an adult or adolescent human female.
   • 1945, James T Farrell, Judgement Day, OCLC 186789080, page 314:

     Tough luck. Too quick in covering to let them see her boobs.

   • 1974, Ernest Brawley, The Rap, page 256:

     Her boob had fallen out of her nightgown and now lay limp against the stained sheet.

   • 2013, book cover for Mommy Has a Boo Boo in Her Boob by Kim Haskan

     Mommy Has a Boo Boo in Her Boob was written to help families who have been affected by breast cancer.

• man boob (man-boob, manboob)
• moob

• See Thesaurus:breasts

Apparently shortened from booby-hatch.

boob (plural boobs)

1. (Australia, US) A prison; jail. [from 20th c.]
   • 1927, William Cooper, letter, in Heiss & Minter (eds.), Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 26:

     Then he got or was brought back to Mongumber he was tired to a tree and was belted by the white officer in charge put into the boob that they have ther I think of cause we cant say for a certain was was brought out of the boob dead or nearly.

• Bobo, bobo