Scooby-Doo

See also: Scooby Doo

English

Alternative forms

• Scooby Doo

Etymology

A cosplay of Scooby-Doo.

Uncertain. scooby doo appears as a vocable scatted in "The Boppenpoof Song"[1] written in 1954, as the name of a band (The Scooby-Doo All-Stars) in 1956[2] and the title of a song by the Jerry Lieber Beat Band published by Zephyr Records in 1959[3] (both of which were signed to Zephyr Records). It is likely that such uses were an influence on the creators of the cartoon but they may also have been partially influenced by Frank Sinatra's "doo-be-doo-be-doo" improvisation in "Strangers in the Night" released in 1963 a few months prior to the first episode of Scooby-Doo being shown (also in 1963).

Proper noun

Scooby-Doo (plural Scooby-Doos)

1. An American cartoon franchise, named for one of the main characters, a large dog, and featuring as protagonists four "meddling" teenagers who unravel seemingly supernatural mysteries.
   • 2007, Jodi Picoult, "Reader's Companion" (Washington Square Press) to the author's Plain Truth (Simon and Schuster, 2000) p.414

     I knew I had to be very careful when I was crafting the story, so that it wouldn't be a Scooby Doo moment—you know, the one where the villain rips off his mask and tells you why he did it—and that he would have gotten away with it, if not for those pesky kids!

   • 2008, Simon Heptinstall, Devon (Crimson Publishing) page 137

     A mile out of town, off the Combe Martin road, discover a real Scooby Doo experience at Chambercombe Manor. It's shrouded in ghost stories and has starred in TV shows about the paranormal.

   • 2010, J. Wachowski, In Plain View, Carina Press, page 314:

     It was a Scooby-Doo moment: everybody looks down, everybody looks up. Maddy looks surprised. Pat looks guilty. Oh, those meddlesome kids.

   • 2010, Buzzy Jackson, Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Genealogist, Simon and Schuster, page 171:

     "I love the Scooby-Doo of it all." And it was fun, combing through old books and papers for recognizable names.

2. The cartoon dog from that cartoon, noted for his trouble-causing lack of sense and almost understandable vocalization.
   • 2006, Sue Owens Wright, How to Determine If Your Dog Is an Einstein—and What to Do If He's a Scooby Doo‎^[4]:

   • 2007, Judith Viorst, Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days, Simon and Schuster, page 28:

     And trying to sell him on carrots when he's yearning for Scooby-Doos poses a challenge similar to selling George W. Bush on tax increases.

   • 2008, Gabriella Herkert, Doggone: An Animal Instinct Mystery, Penguin, page 17:

     It was like she was talking to me. Not barking, not growling. More of a Scooby Doo sort of thing.

   • 2009, Douglas Coupland, Generation A, Simon and Schuster, page 76:

     Zack chose to work with “Ronald Reagan,” which is very Zack; at one point I think he almost convinced Ronald to speak in a Scooby-Doo accent.

Derived terms

• Scooby
• scooby
• Scooby snack
• Scooby gang

Translations

the fictional dog

• Bengali: স্কূবী ডূ (skubi ḍu)
• Georgian: სკუბი დუ (sḳubi du)
• Gujarati: સ્કૂબી ડૂ m (skūbī ḍū)
• Hebrew: סקובי דו m (skubi du)
• Hindi: स्कूबी डू (skūbī ḍū)
• Japanese: スクービー・ドゥー (Sukūbī-Dū)
• Javanese: ꦱ꧀ꦏꦹꦧꦷ ꦣꦹ (skūbī ḍū)
• Kannada: ಸ್ಕೂಬೀ ಡೂ (skūbī ḍū)
• Korean: 스쿠비 두 (seukubi du)
• Marathi: स्कूबी-डू m (skūbī-ḍū)
• Polish: Scooby Doo m
• Portuguese: Scooby-Doo m
• Russian: Ску́би-Ду m (Skúbi-Du)
• Sinhalese: ස්කූබී ඩූ (skūbī ḍū)
• Swedish: Scooby-Doo
• Telugu: స్కూబీ దూ (skūbī dū)
• Urdu: سکوبی ڈو m (skūbī ḍū)
• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} Sgwbi-Dw m

See also

• ruh-roh

Noun

Scooby-Doo (plural Scooby-Doos)

1. (rhyming slang) A Subaru automobile.
   • 2012, Jeremy Clarkson, Round the Bend:

     For the journey home, you'd take the Scooby-Doo. Now, though, everything has changed. The new Subaru is about as much fun as a church service. And it doesn't look good in photographs because, like me, it doesn't look good at all.

2. (rhyming slang) A clue.
   • 2016, Chris Graham, Five Minutes of Amazing: My Journey Through Dementia, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 1:

     It was past ten o'clock at night and I hadn’t a Scooby-Doo where I was. After a tough twelve-hour day in the saddle, cycling more than 130 miles through rain, wind and sleet, I was tired, soaked through and miserable.

3. (rhyming slang, chiefly in the plural) A shoe.
4. (rhyming slang) A screw (a prison warder)
   • 1996, Angela Devlin, Prison Patter‎^[5], Waterside Press, →ISBN:

     There are some 32 different terms for prison officers, from the humorously affectionate kanga (rhyming slang:kangaroo = screw) and the variants Scooby-Doo and Dr. Who via the mildly confrontational German (as if still the enemy over 50 years after World War II!) to the outright abuse of shit-parcel.