name
Meaning 1
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
goon
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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/ˈɡuːn/
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General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -uːn
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɡəʊˌɒn/
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US: /ˈɡoʊˌɑn/
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General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -əʊɒn
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homophone: go on
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CMU ARPABET: G UW1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A hired and paid person who is assigned to terrorize and kill opponents.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, countable, informal, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A fool; someone who is silly, stupid, awkward, or outlandish.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
An enforcer or fighter.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, derogatory, uncountable
Topics: hobbies, ice-hockey, lifestyle, skating, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
A German guard in a prisoner-of-war camp.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, countable, uncountable
Qualifier: World War II; PoW slang; World War II; PoW slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
One hired to legally kidnap a child and forcibly transport them to a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness therapy, or a similar rehabilitation facility.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, slang, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
Box wine.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, colloquial, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 9
A member of the comedy website Something Awful.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Internet, countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 10
A wine flagon or cask.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, Internet, countable, informal, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 11
Cheap or inferior cask wine.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, Internet, informal, intransitive, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 12
A Sino-Japanese kanji pronunciation layer, considered the first Sino-Japanese kanji reading type used in Japan.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Internet, intransitive, uncountable
Examples
- The Buddhist term 権化 is read as gonge, using the kanji's goon readings.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 13
Alternative letter-case form of goon (“a member of the comedy web site Something Awful”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 14
To act like a goon; to act in an intimidating or aggressive way towards opponents.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang, transitive
Topics: hobbies, ice-hockey, lifestyle, skating, sports
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 15
To legally kidnap a child and forcibly transport them to a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness therapy, or a similar rehabilitation facility.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: neologism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 16
To masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Internet, intransitive, slang
Qualifier: strictly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: edge, fap, abuse, bash one out, bate, beat it, beat off, crank one out, frig, goon, jack off, jack it, jerk, jerk it, jerk the gherkin, jerk off, jerk one off, jerk one out, jork it, knock one out, make the bald man cry, masturbate, mastuprate, play pocket pool, play with oneself, pleasure oneself, rub one off, rub one out, self-abuse, self-pollute, service oneself, skeet, stroke, toss, toss off, touch oneself, wank, wank off, whack off, yank
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 17
To masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax.
To masturbate (in general).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Internet, broadly, intransitive
Qualifier: strictly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: edge, fap, abuse, bash one out, bate, beat it, beat off, crank one out, frig, goon, jack off, jack it, jerk, jerk it, jerk the gherkin, jerk off, jerk one off, jerk one out, jork it, knock one out, make the bald man cry, masturbate, mastuprate, play pocket pool, play with oneself, pleasure oneself, rub one off, rub one out, self-abuse, self-pollute, service oneself, skeet, stroke, toss, toss off, touch oneself, wank, wank off, whack off, yank
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 18
an aggressive and violent young criminal
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: hood, hoodlum, punk, thug, tough, toughie, strong-armer
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: criminal, felon, crook, outlaw, malefactor
Narrower terms: bully
noun
Meaning 19
an awkward stupid person
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: lout, clod, stumblebum, oaf, lubber, lummox, lump, gawk
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: clumsy person
History
Etymology
Perhaps a shortened form of Irish McGoohan.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dheǵh- Proto-Indo-European *-ōm Proto-Indo-European *dhéǵhōm Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Indo-European *ǵhmṓ Proto-Germanic *gumô Proto-West Germanic *gumō Old English guma Middle English gone? English gooney English goon Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony (“simpleton”), used circa 1580, of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural). * Etymology 1, noun sense 1 ("hired thug"; circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series. * Etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("fool") was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. * Etymology 1, noun sense 5 ("guard") was influenced by both etymology 1, noun sense 1 and etymology 1, noun sense 3, though not by The Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII.
Perhaps diminutive slang for flagon or from Aboriginal English goom.
Borrowed from Japanese 呉音 (goon).
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dheǵh- Proto-Indo-European *-ōm Proto-Indo-European *dhéǵhōm Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Indo-European *ǵhmṓ Proto-Germanic *gumô Proto-West Germanic *gumō Old English guma Middle English gone? English gooney English goon? English goon Possibly derived from etymology 1, from etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("a fool; a stupid person"), or from etymology 1, noun sense 1 ("a thug").
Across languages
Translations
4 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- German: goonen — to masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax
- Italian: stare a segarsi tutto il giorno — to masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax
- Turkish: goonmak — to masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax
- Turkish: goonlamak — to masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax