ballyhoo

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: bal=ly=hoo

CIDE DICTIONARY

ballyhoo, v. t. 

 to advertize or publicize noisily or blatantly.  [WordNet 1.5]

ballyhoo, n. 

 noisy or blatant advertizing or publicity.  [WordNet 1.5]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

ballyhoo, n.
1 a loud noise or fuss; a confused state or commotion.
2 extravagant or sensational publicity.

Etymology

19th or 20th c., orig. US (in sense 2): orig. unkn.

THESAURUS

ballyhoo

PR, advertise, aggrandize, aggrandizement, amplification, amplify, bark, big talk, bill, blowing up, blurb, boost, bright light, build up, bulletin, burlesque, caricature, carry too far, celebrity, circularize, common knowledge, cry, cry up, currency, daylight, dilatation, dilation, draw the longbow, eclat, enhancement, enlargement, establish, exaggerate, exaggerating, exaggeration, excess, exorbitance, expansion, exposure, extravagance, extreme, fame, famousness, give a write-up, give publicity, glare, go to extremes, grandiloquence, heightening, herald, hoopla, huckstering, hue and cry, hyperbole, hyperbolism, hyperbolize, inflation, inordinacy, lay it on, limelight, magnification, magnify, make much of, maximum dissemination, notoriety, overcharge, overdo, overdraw, overemphasis, overestimate, overestimation, overkill, overpraise, overreach, overreact, oversell, overspeak, overstate, overstatement, overstress, patter, pile it on, pitch, placard, plug, post, post bills, post up, press notice, press-agent, prodigality, profuseness, promote, public eye, public knowledge, public relations, public report, publicity, publicity story, publicize, publicness, puff, puffery, puffing up, reclame, report, sales pitch, sales talk, sell, sensationalism, spiel, spotlight, stretch, stretch the truth, stretching, superlative, talk big, talk in superlatives, tall talk, tout, touting, travesty, trumpet, write up, write-up