English

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Etymology

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From bamboozle.

Verb

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bambooze (third-person singular simple present bamboozes, present participle bamboozing, simple past and past participle bamboozed) (transitive, obsolete, dialectal, informal)

  1. Alternative spelling of bamboozle
    • 1893, André Theuriet, chapter XII, in E. P. Robins, transl., My Uncle Scipio, New York: Peter Fenelon Collier, pages 209-210:
      “Oh, come now, Jacques,” he grumbles, “ain’t they listed yet, those famous shares of yours ? Your uncle promised to give me a part interest for my wages, but it won’t do for him to bambooze me too long, because I will give him as good as he sends, I will ! I ain’t the sort to be gammoned, I ain’t !”
    • 1899, “7 of Jonathan Delano”, in Joel Andrew Delano, compiler, Genealogy of Delano: 1621 - 1899, volumes 4-6, page 426:
      As " Here lie the slimsey remains of aristocratic wit: Which shone awhile with uncommon brilliancy: Illuminating the 15 Un. States: Evidently calculated to bambooze the people into a just sense of their dearest rizts; until: Exhausting its glow-worm taper in squibs crackers buffoonery & bombast is now set: In eternal oblivion! "
    • 1906 November, “Osteopathy”, in J. W. Jervey, editor, Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association, page 292:
      He shadows the regular in his name, the massage operator in his method, and the hypnotist in bamboozing the public.
    • 1934 September, Carson Seeley, Writer's Digest, volume 14, number 10, page 40:
      I told him that if he thinks he can bambooze me with any such truck of a notion he was crazy.