Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang A thug hired to intimidate or harm opponents.
- n. Slang A stupid or oafish person.
Wiktionary
- n. A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence (also known as a 'hired goon').
- n. A fool; someone considered silly, stupid, awkward, or outlandish.
- n. ice hockey, pejorative An enforcer or fighter.
- n. Australia, countable, informal A wine flagon or cask.
- n. Australia, uncountable, informal Cheap or inferior cask wine.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an awkward stupid person
- n. an aggressive and violent young criminal
Etymologies
- Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony ("simpleton", c.1580), of unknown origin. Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (c.1839). Goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (c.1921). (Wiktionary)
- Probably ultimately short for gooney, simpleton. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The BMC calendar is legal -- even without Ford's blessing -- and when you protect yourself from legal liability by shutting it down, you incur PR liability by seeming like a bunch of candy-asses who can be bullied into submission by a memo from some white-shoe legal goon from a Fortune 100.”
“So it is extremely likely that Alice the Goon did influence the now standard meaning of the word goon, but E.C. Segar did not coin the word itself, as it was around for more than a decade before Alice the Goon came into the picture.”
Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #156 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources
“Milligan is said to have picked the word goon out of a Popeye comic and started using it as derogatory term for people he saw as idiots.”
Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #156 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources
“Another tuneless goon is going to be eliminated from X Factor tomorrow – but who?”
“Just think, this goon is just now starting his career in the Senate and even though he has one of the worst approval ratings the idjits here in Oklahoma will vote him back into office purely because he is Southern Baptist and knows how to talk to the rubes in this state.”
“Crank up the volume and get ready to call the goon squad.”
The Huffington Post: WATCH: David Bowie Rocks Out To 'Fashion,' Late '90s-Style
“That a goon is a goon has to do with their humanness, not their politics.”
“Nancy is like, yeah, well, your goon is a blood stain and I think Guillermo his peoples is to blame.”
Weeds Session: Episode “Su-Su-Sucio” Offers Jokes, Hugs, Voyeurism, and Blood Relief | /Film
“I've always wanted to be a henchman, so signing up to be a goon was an easy decision.”
“Also the lack of the so-called goon is refreshing.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘goon’.
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Hockey
As the playoffs are on, some Hockey terms, and likely some Canadianisms in here.
face off, playoff beard, playoff, faceoff, bodycheck, hipcheck, icing, pass, facemask, stick, puck, Peter Puck and 182 more...
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gangster
random gangster lingo and street slang with extra absurdities.
( open list, randomness )
related:
http://www....swagga, chinga, slams, blitzy, earf, manor, code name, rekkid, weight, feather, kong, swisher and 324 more...
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, slubberdegullion, bastard, hooligan, boor, churl, thug, cad, ne'er-do-well, miscreant, minx and 85 more...
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people (bad)
nouns for bad people / words that describe bad people.
goto the good people list
( people, character, descriptor, noun )culprit, perpetrator, tormentor, swindler, bamboozler, nincompoop, thief, liar, back stabber, vandal, burglar, cheater and 85 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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bootload's Words
grouse, beaut, ripper, gassit, hack, hacking, twit, spon, goon, rosella, magpie, galah and 184 more...
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Malachi_Constant's Words
triumverate, pandemic, parsnip, delineate, zamboni, parka, laser, swoop, malevolent, benevolent, fracas, tipsy and 372 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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Slang words of Irish origin according...
Compare the etymologies of these words as given in the OED with the Gaelic backgrounders in this book, How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads (Counterpunch, 2007). Awai...
smack, snazzy, pussy, geek, dork, dude, smudge, snap, slugger, slum, scam, slew and 102 more...
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lemongrass's Words
ineffable, diode, abraxas, neologism, algorithm, schadenfreude, heresiology, vague, cathartic, quixotic, apocrypha?, quintessence and 103 more...
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Tolland's list
Those I've come across and try to keep fresh within my mind.
clandestine, dysphoric, indictive, vigil, fractious, assiduous, indefatigable, ubiquitous, insidious, paroicous, aplomb, sangfroid and 654 more...
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librarygoblin's words
crystal, ghost, mist, snow, labyrinth, citadel, tomb, mystery, arcane, conundrum, echo, dynamo and 389 more...
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junestag's Words
postmodernism, cat, fish, rabbit, dell, coffee, elearning, mazda, php, mysql, flash, blogger and 755 more...
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grassdog's Words
schadenfreude, sanguine, nefarious, verisimilitude, antediluvian, salacious, obfuscate, plethora, cacophony, defenestration, vacillate, blasphemy and 478 more...
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Gigglesomes
Words that make me giggle.
sackbut, beshrew, hubbub, futz, tchotchke, oolong, newt, dingo, squishy, fjord, squirt, dangler and 107 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for goon.
bilby Was in one of the local papers today. Story was about there perhaps being a levy placed on this kind of wine, partly because we have a major problem with street drunks and this is their tipple of choice, partly because the cask bladders they leave in their wake are a non-biodegradable blight on the landscape. First time I'd seen the term. Sep 10, 2009
arcadia --bilby, A little late to confirm, isn't it?
When I see this word, I am forced to think of that really stupid song that my children's great-aunt insists on singing to them all the time, about Little Bunny Foo-foo. ...Dear God, why!?!?! Make it stop. Sep 10, 2009
bilby I can confirm what AZ sez. Sep 10, 2009
grandpa27 I believe that Goon was used (maybe invented) by Segar, the creator of Popeye the sailor. Google Goon Segar
Mack Kelly
Mar 26, 2009
abraxaszugzwang I can't remember who had the wine list, but in Australia, goon is the slang for bottom-of-the-barrel cask wine. Mar 9, 2007