Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Money, especially counterfeit money.
  • noun Money accepted as a bribe.
  • noun Stolen goods; swag.
  • noun A crowd of people; caboodle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Crowd; pack; lot: in a contemptuous sense, especially in the phrase the whole kit and boodle.
  • noun Money fraudulently obtained in public service; especially, money given to or received by officials in bribery, or gained by collusive contracts, appointments, etc.; by extension, gain from public cheating of any kind: often used attributively.
  • noun Counterfeit money.
  • noun A blockhead; a noodle.
  • noun Same as newmarket, 1.
  • noun An old English name for the corn-marigold, Chrysanthemum segetum. Also written buddle.

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

  • noun Low, U. S. The whole collection or lot; caboodle.
  • noun Polit. slang, U. S. Money given in payment for votes or political influence; bribe money; swag.

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

  • noun Money, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag.
  • noun US, dialect The whole collection or lot; caboodle.

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

  • noun a gambling card game in which chips are placed on the ace and king and queen and jack of separate suits (taken from a separate deck); a player plays the lowest card of a suit in his hand and successively higher cards are played until the sequence stops; the player who plays a card matching one in the layout wins all the chips on that card
  • noun informal terms for money

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch boedel, estate, from Middle Dutch bōdel; see bheuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Dutch boedel.

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Examples

  • In the mean time the governor had heard the whisper of "boodle" -- a word of the day expressive of a corrupt legislative fund.

    The Titan Theodore Dreiser 1908

  • We are now known as the boodle or boondoggle city.

    The Chicago Picasso. Ann Althouse 2008

  • Leaving her, I went to our rendezvous, near Broadway and Astor place, where I found Irving, who handed me over his "boodle" (as he termed it), remarking confidentially that I was to give him on my return his share into his own hands; and, singularly enough, each of the others did precisely the same thing.

    Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison Fifteen Years in Solitude Austin Bidwell

  • This "boodle" deal evokes the query whether if a candidate for

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 10 1905

  • The hint that the "boodle" was "six figures short" made the condition of the national treasury lamentably clear.

    Cabbages and Kings 1904

  • The telephone was not then in existence; there were no Pullman cars; the words "boodle" and "wire," in the sense here used, had never been heard.

    Who Wrote the Bible? : a Book for the People Washington Gladden 1877

  • He is simple in his habits, generous and kind, obedient to those who are over him either in civil or religious matters; he is a quiet citizen; he is very fond of a little "boodle" (when he can get it), and it is looked upon as one of his virtues which he sometimes pursues to an unwholesome extent; he is called up and rebuked for it, goes away and soon begins to do it again.

    Canada from East to West 1910

  • "boodle" was "six figures short" made the condition of the national treasury lamentably clear.

    Cabbages and Kings O. Henry 1886

  • It is their boodle, pelf and spoils that they are trying to preserve.

    Henry J. Stern: Beware the Gerrymander Henry J. Stern 2011

  • ÂIt is their boodle, pelf and spoils that they are trying to preserve.

    Henry J. Stern: Beware the Gerrymander Henry J. Stern 2011

Comments

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  • "'You study the life and times of Jan-Willem Hendrykxx. I could bear to know how he made his boodle and why he left it to the Ol Njorowa Foundation.'"

    - 'Windfall', Desmond Bagley.

    January 6, 2008

  • Crossword puzzle clue for swag.

    January 17, 2008

  • "As soon as the railroad wants to talk business with me," observed Annixter, "about selling me their interest in Quien Sabe, I'm ready. The land has more than quadrupled in value. I'll bet I could sell it to-morrow for fifteen dollars an acre, and if I buy of the railroad for two and a half an acre, there's boodle in the game."

    - Frank Norris, The Octopus, ch. 3

    August 9, 2008

  • When Ernest lays him down to sleep

    He tallies the toll his labors reap.

    He hoards in his noodle

    A lexical boodle,

    It's words that he counts, never sheep.

    Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit

    November 14, 2015