Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang The ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage.
- n. Slang Aggressive energy; initiative: "His prose has moxie, though it rushes and stumbles from a pent-up surge” ( Patricia Hampl).
- n. Slang Skill; know-how.
Wiktionary
- n. backbone, determination and fortitude
- n. initiative or skill
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. energy; pep.
- n. courage, determination.
- n. Know-how, expertise.
WordNet 3.0
- n. fortitude and determination
Etymologies
- From the name of an American patent medicine first manufactured about 1885. (Wiktionary)
- From Moxie, trademark for a soft drink. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term moxie is slang for vigor, courage, aggressiveness, skill, and know-how.”
“This sort of moxie is not news to Rebecca Miller, executive director of the D.C. Preservation League, who has been working with Highsmith for years to capture images of D. C.'s sometimes less than sexy historical points.”
“Scene: Thursday afternoon, Taurasi all ponytail, freckles and moxie is standing in her team's locker room holding court with reporters.”
“Flowers prefers "moxie" - having the energy, courage and perseverance to see a venture through to success.”
“When I was a younger man, I displayed a fair amount of moxie, which is the perfect noun to demonstrate exactly how long ago that was.”
“The term moxie means natural ability, comptetency, or talent.”
“Milbury is one of the league's most colorful figures, and the consensus around the draft venue was his moxie should be admired if nothing else.”
“Griffan averaged 15.1 minutes per game this year, but he might be ready to show the same kind of moxie that his older brother has displayed for the past four years.”
“We're fascinated by, among other things, the president's dog, the president's sleeves, the president's wife's lack of sleeves and accompanying "moxie," and the president's daughters 'swing sets.”
“He says he's not blaming immigrants themselves, and praises their "moxie" for taking such risky steps to improve their lives.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘moxie’.
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Americanism
American words
finest, fast food, acclimate, aluminum, alphabetize, airplane, affirmative action, arugula, backhoe, bangs, base board, bayou and 162 more...
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Sue's favorite words
panache, flair, pantaloons, periwinkle, pumpernickel, persnickety, cachet, coquette, élan, iris, ambrosia, keen and 99 more...
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Any words List Its open!!
Im savin it for later
awesepoto
cooliest
sup
a-w-e-s-o-m-e
cool beans dude
hit me man
Rock on
Get a life dude
book timeweird, mongolian, 7457, saitin, toejam, aver, misanthrope, blandishment, cadge, fuschia, fuchsia, discotheque and 367 more...
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Massholese
"Everybody says words different,' said Ivy. 'Arkansas folks says 'em different, and Oklahomy folks says 'em different. And we seen a lady from Massachusetts, an' she said 'em different of all. Coul...
pissah, evacuation day, wicked, wicked, carriage, bubbler, patriot's day, frappe, packie, jimmies, so don't i, southie and 18 more...
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Please Add These Words
I would like to bump the f-word from the Wordie Hot 100 so I can print it out for my kids. These are the words that are narrowly behind it. Let's do this!
sardonic, troglodyte, lascivious, pernicious, azure, alacrity, prestidigitation, ineffable, quagmire, prolix, nascent, eschew and 16 more...
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position (dynamic)
( descriptive )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/static
even more:
charismatic, lively, animated, shifting, permeate, wobble, shimmer, sparkle, flex, pizzazz, chaos, fractal and 42 more... -
Energetic
braze, raze, brisance, brisant, rive, catalyze, whipsaw, crack, actinic, sublimate, animate, vitalize and 88 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Is it morning yet?
coterie, lexeme, counterbalance, forthright, pigtail, ponytail, french-braid, barrette, listless, counsel, sitting duck, dead duck and 268 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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vocabulary
verisimilitude, pendulate, moxie, whimper, nary, stevedore, hubris, prodigious, super-injunction, injunction, lashings, fennel and 202 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1401 more...
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Maineisms
Some of these were taken from older literature and have fallen out of use in the past few decades, but many are still used today in the same way they were used a century ago. By no means a compreh...
Yankeedom, wizzled, wing and wing, wickie-up, whiffletree, weewaw, wangan, wainy, upstair, twice-laid, tunket, trig and 136 more...
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trademark
all of these are from 7 English
dictionaries and Macquarie dictionary
I havent listed capitalized ones yet
but Viagra would be one and common
words like sterling a sub-machi...agene, airbus, alnico, adware, amberina, amarone, apiezon, aspirin, boxercise, bakelite, bromo, atebrin and 774 more...
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words I love
uncouth, milquetoast, clusterfuck, salacious, usurp, harpoon, unsavoury, bulwark, legerdemain, qualm, quagmire, trumps and 209 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for moxie.
fbharjo gentian juice Dec 23, 2008
plethora Maybe it's like recreational drugs, as opposed to medicinal ones.
My daily intake of Coke, for caffeine, is necessary to my continued existence, not always for recreational purposes. Apr 20, 2008
frindley Wikipedia describes the product Moxie as a recreational soft drink. Does anyone know how that differs from an ordinary soft drink? Apr 20, 2008
arby Eww, seafoam moist sounds so nasty. Nov 27, 2007
uselessness Well arby, people used to use the phrase seafoam moist, but that fell out of favor pretty quickly. So yeah, green is all that's left. ;-) Oct 17, 2007
chained_bear I think spelling seafoam as two words takes moxie. Oct 17, 2007
arby I agree 100% jr, and I know I've seen it spelled that way before - usually in the context of decorating or clothing.
This lovely bridesmaid's dress in seafoam green will flatter any complexion - yada yada yada
Another burning question - is there any other word that can follow/modify seafoam aside from green? Or should we just say the expression is always seafoam green and be done with it? Oct 17, 2007
jennarenn Wearing a sea foam green polyester suit with a pink ruffled shirt and white patent leather shoes takes moxie.
On a side note, why isn't sea foam one word? Both Dictionary.com & Word want to split in half. I think that the two halves want to sit together. Oct 17, 2007
john Retro? I had a cool, refreshing moxie at lunch today. How can it be retro, if it's always in style? Oct 17, 2007
samoritan This is one of those words that I would love to see come back into general usage. It's just so retro! May 17, 2007
john Tastes like medicine, yet I love it. Dec 11, 2006