name
Meaning 1
A city in the Central African Republic.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Colloquial Variant guide
bimbo
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈbɪmbəʊ/
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US: bĭm'bō
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US: /ˈbɪmboʊ/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɪmbəʊ
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CMU ARPABET: B IH1 M B OW0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A physically attractive person, typically a woman or otherwise feminine in appearance, who lacks intelligence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, slang
Examples
- a. 1992, P. J. O’Rourke, a sketch A bimbo is a woman who is not pretty enough to be a model, not smart enough to be an actress, and not nice enough to be a poisonous snake.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: airhead, bimbette, floozie
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A stupid or foolish person.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, derogatory, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Initialism of buy-in management buyout.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Topics: business
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
a young woman indulged by rich and powerful older men
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: girl, miss, missy, young lady, young woman, fille
History
Etymology
From Italian bimbo (“a child, a male baby”), variant of bambino (“child”). Originated in Italian American theater, attested 1919, as “stupid, inconsequential man”, by 1920 developed sense of “floozie, attractive and stupid woman”. Popularized in 1920s by Jack Conway of entertainment magazine Variety, who also popularized baloney (“nonsense”) and palooka (“large stupid man”). Revived in popularity in 1980s US political sex scandals.
Across languages
Translations
34 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: кифла (kifla) — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Chinese Mandarin: 小妞 (xiǎoniū) — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Czech: barbína — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Finnish: bimbo — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- French: bimbo — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- French: ravissante idiote — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- French: gourde sexy — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- French: pitoune — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- German: Tussi — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- German: Betthäschen — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Greek: χαζογκόμενα (chazogkómena) — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Hebrew: פרחה — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Hungarian: maca — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Hungarian: liba — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Hungarian: tyúk — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Italian: oca giuliva — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Polish: słodka idiotka — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Polish: karyna — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Polish: lalunia — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Polish: blachara — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Russian: фифа (fifa) — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Spanish: mujer florero — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Swedish: bimbo — physically attractive woman who lacks intelligence
- Czech: trouba — stupid or foolish person
- Czech: trubec — stupid or foolish person
- French: idiot — stupid or foolish person
- French: andouille — stupid or foolish person
- French: couillon — stupid or foolish person
- French: neuneu — stupid or foolish person
- German: Idiot — stupid or foolish person
- German: Dummkopf — stupid or foolish person
- Hungarian: fajankó — stupid or foolish person
- Hungarian: bunkó — stupid or foolish person
- Hungarian: tuskó — stupid or foolish person