Standard Lemma guide
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
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.
adj
Dull; uninteresting; insipid.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Low in spirit or health; down.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
intj
An expression of mild frustration.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: bah, blast, drat, fie
Antonyms: none provided
intj
Imitative of idle, meaningless talk; used sometimes in a slightly derogatory manner to mock or downplay another's words, or to show disinterest in a diatribe, rant, instructions, unsolicited advice, parenting, etc. Also used when recalling and retelling another's words, as a substitute for the portions of the speech deemed irrelevant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: When spoken repeatedly; often three times in succession: blah blah blah!; When spoken repeatedly; often three times in succession: blah blah blah!
Synonyms: blah blah, blah blah blah, yada yada yada
Antonyms: none provided
intj
Representing the sound of vomiting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bleah, blech, bleh
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Nonsense; drivel; idle, meaningless talk.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bosh, bombast, rubbish, absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls, baloney, banana oil, Bandini, baragouin, batcrap, batshit, bilgewater, blah, blather, blatherskite, bobbins, bollocks, BS, bull, bullcrap, bulldust, bull feathers, bullshit, bullspeak, bunk, bunkum, bushwah, clamjamfrey, claptrap, cobblers, codswallop, crap, crock, crock of shit, double Dutch, double talk, doublespeak, dribble, drivel, eyewash, fiddle-faddle, flapdoodle, flim-flam, flizz, flummery, folderol, foolishness, footle, framis, fuckery, fuckry, fudge, galimatias, Gallophone, garbage, garble, gash, gibber, gibberish, gobbledygook, gossip, Greek, guff, gup, hoax, hocus-pocus, hogwash, hokum, hooey, horse cock, horsefeathers, horse hockey, horse piss, horse puckey, horseshit, humbug, Irish bull, jabber, jabberwocky, jargon, jibber-jabber, jimjam, jive, junk, lallation, macaroni, malarkey, manure, meaninglessness, moonshine, mumbo jumbo, nertz, nonsense, pie in the sky, piffle, pigswill, poppycock, prattle, put-on, rhubarb, rhubarb rhubarb, rigmarole, rot, ruse, santorum, shit, shite, skimble-skamble, squit, stuff, stuff and nonsense, tommy-rot, tosh, trittle trattle, tush, trash, tripe, twaddle, wass, whiff-whaff, word salad
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A general or ambiguous feeling of discomfort, dissatisfaction, uneasiness, boredom, mild depression, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, in-plural, informal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: malaise
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A fool, an idiot.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To utter idle, meaningless talk.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
pompous or pretentious talk or writing
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bombast, fustian, rant, claptrap
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: grandiosity, magniloquence, ornateness, grandiloquence, rhetoric
History
* Sense “Idle, meaningless talk” (1940), probably imitative or echoic in origin. Compare Ancient Greek βαρ-βαρ (bar-bar, “unintelligible sounds”), of which the word barbarian derives from. * Adjective sense “bland, dull” (1919), perhaps influenced by French blasé (“bored, indifferent”). * The blahs (“boredom, mild depression”) first attested 1969; probably a blend of the blues + blah (adjective). * Also may be connected with bleat
Across languages
33 source translations are retained for this English entry.
