hooey

H4O1O1E1Y4
/ˈhuː.i/

noun

Silly talk or writing; nonsense, silliness, or fake assertion(s).

“I heard his speech. It sounded like a whole lot of hooey to me.”

UncommonScrabble 11

Meanings

hooey1

nounhooey (uncountable)

alternative hooie

  1. slanguncountableSilly talk or writing; nonsense, silliness, or fake assertion(s).

    I heard his speech. It sounded like a whole lot of hooey to me.

    5 more examples

    Frankly, I cannot imagine that the global political community cares very much how we spell Keelung or Jilong here. Hooey! How Taiwan spells Dunhua or Tunhwa Road does nothing to its national identity, which is and will remain proud and independent. Let us not load what should be practical linguistic matters with such political baggage.

    2002 July 23, Kent M. Suarez, “Letters: Hanyu no threat to identity”, in Taipei Times, sourced from Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Sep 2024, Editorial & Opinion, page 8

    For many doctors, meditation resides in the realm of New Age hooey—okay for Indian yogis and students of Eastern religion, but not suitable for scientific study.

    2006, Ronald H. Hoffman (with Sidney Stevens), How to Talk with Your Doctor: The Guide for Patients and Their Physicians Who Want to Reconcile and Use the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine, ReadHowYouWant.com, pages 216–217

    Sheldon Cooper: I did, but I think I've kind of outgrown Star Trek. You know, stock characters, ludicrous plots, beam me up. What a load of hooey.

    2011 October 13, Chuck Lorre, Eric Kaplan, Maria Ferrari, “The Russian Rocket Reaction (5-5)” (00:16:47–00:17:00 from the start), in The Big Bang Theory

    Dingo: Haha! Sounds like you're scared of ghosts. You know there's no such thing, right?! / Yonny: Well, actually, science has yet to DISprove the existence of ghosts. / Dingo: What? Yon, you're into all this ghost hooey? Really?!

    2023 July 21, Nintendo EPD, Pikmin 4, Nintendo, level/area: Rescue Command Post

    “Jaws 2, 3 and 4, if I had made them, would still have failed,” Spielberg told me, “because of the improbability of a shark that large reoccurring thrice. The audience will accept so much until it becomes hooey.”

    2025 June 14, Nigel Andrews, quoting Steven Spielberg, “They don’t come any bigger”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13

hooey2

nounhooey (plural hooeys)

plural hooeys

  1. slangA hog-tie performed in a rodeo show.

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Possibly related to phooey, possibly a euphemism for horseshit, or possibly from Ukrainian or Russian хуй (xuj). Compare hooie (interjection) and German hui.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Czech nesmysly, blbosti
  • nesmyslysilly talk or writing
  • blbostisilly talk or writing
Dutch flauwe kul, nonsens
  • flauwe kulsilly talk or writing
  • nonsenssilly talk or writing
Finnish pöty, hölynpöly
  • pötysilly talk or writing
  • hölynpölysilly talk or writing
  • roskasilly talk or writing
French connerie, bêtise
  • conneriesilly talk or writing
  • bêtisesilly talk or writing
German Stuss, Schmarrn
  • Stusssilly talk or writing
  • Schmarrnsilly talk or writing
  • Blödsinnsilly talk or writing
Norwegian Bokmål pisspreik, sludder
  • pisspreiksilly talk or writing
  • sluddersilly talk or writing
Russian ерунда́, чушь
  • ерунда́ (jerundá)silly talk or writing
  • чушь (čušʹ)silly talk or writing
Swedish skitsnack, skitprat
  • skitsnacksilly talk or writing
  • skitpratsilly talk or writing
  • smörjasilly talk or writing
  • nonsenssilly talk or writing
  • tramssilly talk or writing

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with hooey

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

hooey. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hooey

MLA

“hooey.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hooey. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hooey,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hooey.

Source: hooey on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.