oofy
English edit
Etymology edit
oof + -y. Oof is a clipping of ooftish, from Yiddish אויפֿן טיש (oyfn tish, “on the table”) in the phrase געלט אויפֿן טיש (gelt oyfn tish, “money on the table”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈuːfi/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (General American) enPR: o͞ofʹē, IPA(key): /ˈufi/
- Rhymes: -uːfi
Adjective edit
oofy (comparative more oofy, superlative most oofy)
- (British, slang, dated) Having lots of oof (money); rich, wealthy.
- 1896 December, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “Dariel: A Romance of Surrey. Chapter VIII.—Through the Corn.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLX, number DCCCCLXXIV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., 112 Wall Street, →OCLC, page 727, column 1:
- How lucky for me she never can have heard of the glorious Tinman, or my oofy maiden-aunt; wouldn't she have jumped at me, if she had?
- 1909, J[oseph] Storer Clouston, chapter XI, in The Prodigal Father, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 215:
- Money isn't everything in this world. Youth and love and pluck are the main things. Hang it, what if you do get into debt occasionally? You've got a pretty oofy father-in-law.
- 1934, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VII, in Right Ho, Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 3 Duke of York Street St. James's London S.W.1, →OCLC, page 70:
- This Tom has a peculiarity I've noticed in other very oofy men. Nick him for the paltriest sum, and he lets out a squawk you can hear at Land's End. He has the stuff in gobs, but he hates giving up.