Meanings
plural boodles
- countableslanguncountableMoney, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag.
He was your 'man higher up' when you were on the force. His share of the boodle passed through your hands. You must go on the stand and testify against him.
1907 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “According to Their Lights”, in The Trimmed Lamp […] , New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.3 more examples
“The boodle. The reward. The £500. The gunner turned damned nasty at the last, and I had to square him with an extra hundred dollars or it would have been nitsky for you and me.
1917 September, Arthur Conan Doyle, “His Last Bow: An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes”, in His Last Bow: A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published October 1917, →OCLC, page 297[…] marauders ready to decamp with whatever boodle they could in one fell swoop at a moment’s notice, your money or your life, leaving you there to point a moral, gagged and garotted.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLCRather than believe it, he goes crazy, falls in love with a marchioness, and gives his boodle gladly to a swindling genealogist who promises to establish that his delusions of nobility are justified.
1966 September 22, Kurt Vonnegut, “The Fall of a Climber”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4Synonyms: dirty money, black money, ackers, bees and honey, blunt, bones, brass, bread
- UScountabledialectaluncountableThe whole collection or lot; caboodle.
He pulled off his coat and threw it down, and declared he'd fight the whole boodle of 'em
1833 January 4, Jack Downing, letter to Ephraim DowningSynonyms: kit and caboodle
- UScountableslanguncountableWest PointCandy and snacks.
Send the first boodle in an airtight container so that there is a place for the storage of future packages […] Suggestions for Boodle: cookies, candy, individual packets of drink mixes (sugar-free), raisins, nuts, gum.
1986, The Parent's Guidebook to West Point, page 62
Synonyms & antonyms
nounMoney, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag.
nounThe whole collection or lot; caboodle.
More synonyms by meaning
nouninformal terms for money
nouna 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 their 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
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Dutchboedel
- Englishboodle
From Dutch boedel. Doublet of bottle (dialectal term meaning building or house).
More words from Dutch
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian плячка, нещо крадено
- плячка (pljačka)Money, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag
- нещо крадено (nešto kradeno)Money, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag
Italian bottino, refurtiva
- bottinoMoney, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag
- refurtivaMoney, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag
Polish brudne pieniądze
- brudne pieniądzeMoney, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag
Russian ворованные деньги
- ворованные деньгиMoney, especially when acquired or spent illegally or improperly; swag
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with boodle
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
boodle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/boodle
“boodle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/boodle. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “boodle,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/boodle.
Source: boodle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.