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kibosh

 
('bŏsh', kī-bŏsh') pronunciation
n. Informal
A checking or restraining element: had to put the kibosh on a poorly conceived plan.

[Origin unknown.]


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Obscure Words:

kibosh

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[origin obscure, possibly Yiddish or Anglo-Hebraic]  slang
1) in the phrase to put the kibosh on, to dispose of finally, finish off, check or stop
2) nonsense, rot, stuff, humbug  3) the proper style or fashion  (senses 2 and 3 are mainly archaic)

1. tv. to end something; to squelch something.  Please don't try to kibosh the scheme this time.
2. n. the end; the final blow; the thing that terminates something. (Usually with the. See also put the kibosh on sth.)  They thought the kibosh was overdone.

noun
/'kaɪbɒʃ/ Also kybosh /'kaɪbɒʃ/
Also kybosh
noun

1:
to put the kibosh on to put an end to, finish off, do for. (1834 —) .
Sunday Post (Glasgow): She'd been looking forward to some salmon fishing, but the heatwave's put the kybosh on that (1975). verb trans.

2:
To finish off, do for. (1884 —) .
Listener What a pity that the stipend has not kept pace...with the fall in the value of money (and it even comes to you less PAYE, thus kiboshing manoeuvrability in the field of expenses!) (1969).

[Origin uncertain; perh. from obs. costermongers' slang kye noun, eighteen pence (from Yiddish kye eighteen) + obs. slang bosh noun, pence, the underlying notion perh. being a 'derisory sum' (cf. to give someone a fourpenny one).]


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Related topics:
put the kibosh on (Idiom)
Kvinnodröm (1955 Drama Film)
Columbo: Any Old Port in a Storm (1973 Mystery Film)

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American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd Read more
McGraw-Hill Slang Dictionary. McGraw-Hill's Essential American Slang Dictionary. Copyright © 2007 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang. Oxford University Press. © 1997, 2008, 2010 All rights reserved.  Read more
 Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved.  Read more

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