booby

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: boo=by

CIDE DICTIONARY

booby, n. [Sp. bobo dunce, idiot; cf. L. balbus stammering, E. barbarous.].

•  A dunce; a stupid fellow.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

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.] Bartlett. -- Booby hutch, a clumsy covered carriage or seat, used in the eastern part of England. Forby. -- 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.

booby, a. 

 Having the characteristics of a booby; stupid.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

booby, n. (pl. -ies)
1 a stupid or childish person.
2 a small gannet of the genus Sula.

Idiom

booby-hatch esp. US sl. a mental hospital. booby prize a prize given to the least successful competitor in any contest. booby trap
1 a trap intended as a practical joke, e.g. an object placed on top of a door ajar.
2 Mil. an apparently harmless explosive device intended to kill or injure anyone touching it. booby-trap v.tr. place a booby trap or traps in or on.

Etymology

prob. f. Sp. bobo (in both senses) f. L balbus stammering

THESAURUS

booby

also-ran, asshole, bag, boob, boobs, bosom, breast, breasts, brisket, bust, chest, chump, crop, defeatee, ding-a-ling, dingbat, dingdong, dolt, dolthead, duck, dug, fall guy, fathead, galoot, game loser, good loser, good sport, goof, jerk, jerk-off, klutz, knockers, loser, mama, mamelon, mamelonation, mammary gland, mammilla, mammillation, mutt, nenes, nipple, oak, pap, papilla, pigeon breast, prize sap, sap, saphead, sawney, schlemiel, sport, stooge, teat, the vanquished, thorax, tit, tits, titties, titty, udder, underdog, victim

ROGET THESAURUS

booby

Fool

N fool, idiot, tomfool, wiseacre, simpleton, witling, dizzard, donkey, ass, ninny, ninnyhammer, chowderhead, chucklehead, dolt, booby, Tom Noddy, looby, hoddy-doddy, noddy, nonny, noodle, nizy, owl, goose, goosecap, imbecile, gaby, radoteur, nincompoop, badaud, zany, trifler, babbler, pretty fellow, natural, niais, child, baby, infant, innocent, milksop, sop, oaf, lout, loon, lown, dullard, doodle, calf, colt, buzzard, block, put, stick, stock, numps, tony, bull head, dunderhead, addlehead, blockhead, dullhead, loggerhead, jolthead, jolterhead, beetlehead, beetlebrain, grosshead, muttonhead, noodlehead, giddyhead, numbskull, thickskull, lackbrain, shallowbrain, dimwit, halfwit, lackwit, dunderpate, lunkhead sawney, gowk, clod, clod-hopper, clod-poll, clot-poll, clot-pate, bull calf, gawk, Gothamite, lummox, rube, men of Boeotia, wise men of Gotham, un sot a triple etage, sot, jobbernowl, changeling, mooncalf, gobemouche, dotard, driveler, old fogey, old woman, crock, crone, grandmother, cotquean, henhussy, incompetent (insanity), greenhorn, dunce, lubber, madman, one who will not set the Thames on fire, one who did not invent gunpowder, qui n'a pas invente' la poudre, no conjuror, fortuna favet fatuis, les fous font les festinas et les sages les mangen, nomina stultorum parietibus harrent, stultorum plena sunt omnia.