hooey

English

WOTD – 27 December 2012, 27 December 2013, 27 December 2014

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhuː.i/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːi

Etymology 1

Possibly related to phooey, possibly a euphemism for horseshit, or possibly from Ukrainian or Russian хуй (xuj). Compare hooie (interjection) and German hui.

Alternative forms

• hooie

Noun

hooey (uncountable)

1. (slang) Silly talk or writing; nonsense, silliness, or fake assertion(s).

   I heard his speech. It sounded like a whole lot of hooey to me.

   • 2002 July 23, Kent M. Suarez, “Letters: Hanyu no threat to identity”, in Taipei Times‎^[1], sourced from Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 September 2024, Editorial & Opinion, page 8‎^[2]:

     Frankly, I cannot imagine that the global political community cares very much how we spell Keelung or Jilong here. Hooey! How Taiwan spells Dunhua or Tunhwa Road does nothing to its national identity, which is and will remain proud and independent. Let us not load what should be practical linguistic matters with such political baggage.

   • 2006, Ronald H. Hoffman (with Sidney Stevens), How to Talk with Your Doctor: The Guide for Patients and Their Physicians Who Want to Reconcile and Use the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine‎^[3], ReadHowYouWant.com, pages 216–217:

     For many doctors, meditation resides in the realm of New Age hooey—okay for Indian yogis and students of Eastern religion, but not suitable for scientific study.

   • 2011 October 13, Chuck Lorre, Eric Kaplan, Maria Ferrari, “The Russian Rocket Reaction (5-5)” (00:16:47–00:17:00 from the start), in The Big Bang Theory:

     Sheldon Cooper: I did, but I think I've kind of outgrown Star Trek. You know, stock characters, ludicrous plots, beam me up. What a load of hooey.

   • 2023 July 21, Nintendo EPD, Pikmin 4, Nintendo, level/area: Rescue Command Post:

     Dingo: Haha! Sounds like you're scared of ghosts. You know there's no such thing, right?! / Yonny: Well, actually, science has yet to DISprove the existence of ghosts. / Dingo: What? Yon, you're into all this ghost hooey? Really?!

   • 2025 June 14, Nigel Andrews, quoting Steven Spielberg, “They don’t come any bigger”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13:

     “Jaws 2, 3 and 4, if I had made them, would still have failed,” Spielberg told me, “because of the improbability of a shark that large reoccurring thrice. The audience will accept so much until it becomes hooey.”

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:nonsense

Translations

silly talk or writing

• Czech: nesmysly m pl, blbosti f pl
• Dutch: flauwe kul, nonsens (nl)
• Finnish: pöty (fi), hölynpöly (fi), roska (fi)
• French: connerie (fr) f, bêtise (fr) f
• German: Stuss (de) m, Schmarrn (de) m, Blödsinn (de) m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pisspreik n, sludder n

• Russian: ерунда́ (ru) (jerundá), чушь (ru) (čušʹ)
• Swedish: skitsnack (sv), skitprat (sv), smörja (sv) c, nonsens (sv) n, trams (sv) n

Etymology 2

Noun

hooey (plural hooeys)

1. (slang) A hog-tie performed in a rodeo show.