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Booby   /bˈubi/   Listen
noun
Booby  n.  (pl. boobies)  
1.
A dunce; a stupid fellow.
2.
(Zool.)
(a)
A swimming bird (Sula fiber or Sula sula) related to the common gannet, and found in the West Indies, nesting on the bare rocks. It is so called on account of its apparent stupidity unafraid of men, it allows itself to be caught by a simple and undisguised approach. The name is also sometimes applied to other species of gannets; as, Sula piscator, the red-footed booby; and Sula nebouxii, the blue-footed booby.
(b)
A species of penguin of the antarctic seas.
Booby hatch
(a)
(Naut.), a kind of wooden hood over a hatch, readily removable.
(b)
, an insane asylum. (Colloq.)
Booby hut, a carriage body put upon sleigh runners. (Local, U. S.)
Booby hutch, a clumsy covered carriage or seat, used in the eastern part of England.
Booby prize, an award for the poorest performance in a competition; hence, metaphorically, the recognition of a strikingly inferior or incompetent performance.
Booby trap
(a)
, a schoolboy's practical joke, as a shower bath when a door is opened.
(b)
, any concealed device causing surprise or injury when a usually harmless object is touched; in military operations, typically containing an explosive charge.


adjective
Booby  adj.  Having the characteristics of a booby; stupid.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Booby" Quotes from Famous Books



... no pity in Jennings' breast, so he ordered Dauss to the booby hatch for a spanking and sent Coveleski to ladle out the pitch stuff. The young southpaw was equally generous in intent and would surely have forced in enough runs to give the Sox the game, but two of the visitors absolutely refused to accept that kind of a gift ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer
... and his fifteen black boat's crew as much as they could handle. She was sixty feet over all, and the cross beams of her crown deck had not been weakened by deck-houses. The only breaks—and no beams had been cut for them—were the main cabin skylight and companionway, the booby hatch for'ard over the tiny forecastle, and the small hatch aft that let ...
— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London
... uneasy conscience, menaced danger. At length it occurred to him that the applicant might be Louis, whom he had sent with the message to the Porte Neuve: and he took the lamp and went to admit him, albeit reluctantly, for what did the booby mean by returning? It was late, and only to open at this hour might, in the light cast by after events, ...
— The Long Night • Stanley Weyman
... he, who based his whole life and his whole reputation on the theory that nothing ever could induce him to make himself ridiculous or to become bad form, might turn out to be the ludicrous hero of a country-house 'booby-trap.' To do him justice, he feared this result much more than the other. But he wanted to test himself—to find himself out. All this thinking had not as yet delayed his movements by a single step, but now he paused for one short second, and he felt his pulse. It beat steadily, ...
— The Dictator • Justin McCarthy
... stopped only when he saw her on the point of hurling at him the chamber utensil which she had just seized. "If it is the devil who has offended thee with his words," she said, "resent the insult with words likewise, jackass that thou art, but if I have offended thee myself, learn, stupid booby, that thou must respect me, and ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt


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