Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun noisy or blatant advertizing or publicity.
  • transitive verb to advertize or publicize noisily or blatantly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An inshore, surface-dwelling species of needlefish forming sizeable schools.
  • noun Sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity.
  • noun Noisy shouting or uproar.
  • verb To sensationalise or make grand claims.
  • noun An unseaworthy or slovenly ship.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun blatant or sensational promotion
  • verb advertize noisily or blatantly

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Spanish balajú

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly from Spanish balahu ("schooner").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Hoo's on first.

    December 13, 2007

  • I don't know.

    December 13, 2007

  • "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.

    March 28, 2008