ballyhooed en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree English ballyhoo Old English -ed Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Germanic *-ōdaz Old English -od Middle English -ed English -ed English ballyhooed From ballyhoo + -ed.
Meanings
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Sensationalized; presented with grand claims.
"...viewers didn't hate them. They were just shocked by them. And all of the ballyhooed techniques used by the armies of market researchers at CBS utterly failed to distinguish between these two very different emotions."
2005, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell, page 175:Behind the scenes, the system had quietly punched a neat loophole into the ballyhooed reform.
2008 September 9, Jim Hightower, “Breaking the Lobbyists' Stranglehold on Our Democracy”, in Creators, archived from the original on 26 Feb 2025:Waitress: There's a man over there who says he's waiting for you. Niles: Ah. No doubt the much ballyhooed Bob.
1996, Frasier episode 3.11:"In Iraq, [director of the American University of Beirut's Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs Rami] Khouri said, the country's vote in January 2005 produced the "much-ballyhooed purple ink-stained finger" but cannot be equated with credible democratic transformation."
2007 — Bush Is Losing Credibility On Democracy, Activists Say, Robin Wright, Washington Post, 2007-06-10
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more ballyhooed | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most ballyhooed | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |