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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.
  2. n. Noisy shouting or uproar.
  3. v. To advertise or publicize by sensational methods.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.
  2. n. Noisy shouting or uproar.
  3. n. An inshore, surface-dwelling species of needlefish forming sizeable schools.
  4. n. An unseaworthy or slovenly ship.
  5. v. To sensationalise or make grand claims.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. to advertize or publicize noisily or blatantly.
  2. n. noisy or blatant advertizing or publicity.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. blatant or sensational promotion
  2. v. advertize noisily or blatantly

Etymologies

  1. Origin unknown.

Examples

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Comments

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  • bilby "When the House Commission for Un-American Activities was officially called a witch-hunt, one group of radical women suddenly realised that that was what they wanted to be, so WITCH, Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, was formed. Ballyhoo was their business and from the beginning they were good at it. Dressed in black and riding broomsticks they hexed the Chase Manhattan Bank, distorting the familiar slogan (You Have A Friend In The Chase Manhattan) in a fashion fatuous enough for J. Walter Thompson himself (You Have A Fiend In The Chase Manhattan). When they bewitched Wall Street the market obligingly suffered a frisson of five points and then pulled itself together again. Bra burning and invading the annual Bride Fair in Madison Square Garden were good fun and good copy too. Nowadays WITCH is a little leery of the Tactical Police Force and has gone underground and anonymous, a heavy fate for ballyhoo."
    - 'The Slag-Heap Erupts', Germaine Greer, 1970. Mar 28, 2008

  • reesetee I don't know. Dec 13, 2007

  • bilby Hoo's on first. Dec 13, 2007

‘ballyhoo’ has been looked up 2011 times, loved by 4 people, added to 47 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.