Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Resembling or characteristic of a boor; rude and clumsy in behavior.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Resembling a boor; clownish; rustic; awkward in manners; illiterate.
- Pertaining to or fit for a boor.
- Synonyms Boorish, Churlish, Clownish, Loutish. He who is boorish is so low-bred in habits and ways as to be positively offensive. He who is churlish offends by his language and manners, they being such as would naturally be found in one who is coarse and selfish, and therefore generally insolent or crusty and rough; the opposite of kind and courteous: as, it is churlish to refuse to answer a civil question. The opposite of boorish is refined or polite; the opposite of clownish is elegant. Clownish is a somewhat weaker word than boorish, implying less that is disgusting in manner and speech; it often notes mere lack of refinement. The difference between clownish and loutish is that he who is clownish is generally stupid and sometimes ludicrous, while he who is loutish is perhaps slovenly and worthy of blame.
Wiktionary
- adj. Behaving as a boor; rough in manners; rude; uncultured.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Like a boor; clownish; uncultured; unmannerly.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance
Etymologies
- boor ("peasant") + -ish. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“FDR was branded as a sick demented dictator, Truman was called a boorish drunk, Kennedy was a spineless commie dupe.”
“Mountains of northern Spain leave their poor country for a time for the richer provinces of Portugal and Spain, where they become porters, water-carriers and scavengers, and are known as boorish, but industrious and honest.”
Influences of Geographic Environment On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography
“If Americans acted this way, we'd be called boorish or jingoistic.”
“Philadelphia fans are known as boorish and hate-filled, frequently vilified by columnists too lazy to come up with something other than an incident when fans threw snowballs at Santa.”
“What kind of boorish, tastless clods subscribe to this blog anyway???”
“If this is the best you have, then vote for the 'boorish' McCain, you ignorant slouch.”
“Over the next seven decades, as pro sports increasingly became the city's remaining portal into the nation's consciousness, you could add the epithet "boorish" to "boring" -- there were snowballs at Santa Claus (sort of) and catcalls for just about anyone.”
Will Bunch: How Philadelphia Got Its Groove Back -- And Why N.Y. Is Jealous
“In fact, the Talmud describes the Zealots as biryonim, meaning "boorish" or "wild", and are condemned for their aggression, their unwillingness to compromise to save the survivors of besieged Jerusalem, and their blind-militarism.”
“I mean, is it this cartoonish that -- that he could just come out and forget about the merits of the argument one way or the other and just attack the messenger in this kind of boorish a way?”
“This kind of boorish behaviour will only attract investigative efforts.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘boorish’.
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plai...
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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Rexicon
brazen, insipid, cuss, penchant, salacious, titillate, lurid, schlemiel, interlope, masquerade, supercilious, action-taking and 51 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
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jaradgiese's Words
paronomasia, ostensible, insouciant, sobriquet, burlesque, insalubrious, apotheosis, hyperbole, connubial, felicity, florid, conurbation and 642 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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wunderkammer's Words
smarmy, bubkes, elucidate, togs, aeolian, carp, kibosh, bosky, ramshackle, mange, harpy, effervesce and 163 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for boorish.
bilby "'In my obituary,' he said to the two silent backs, 'they will write that he contributed two hundred million in taxes for the common good, and that he gave Denmark more free international publicity than Niels Bohr and a million pallets of bacon ever did. Nonetheless, the men who accompanied him - when he was taken away to torture and execution - were as boorish as hip-hop gangsters. And as unshaven as Indian swamis.'"
- 'The Quiet Girl', Peter Høeg. Mar 19, 2008