Dictionary

goboon en · NOUN

Etymology

From gob (“saliva”) + -oon.

Meanings

1. (colloquial) A receptacle for spit; a spittoon, a spitbox; a spit bucket.
   • In the House chamber, weary Speaker Sam Rayburn, pausing only to spit with experienced accuracy into his goboon, cleared hundreds of routine bills with incessant repetition of the magic words: "Without objection, so ordered." 1952 July 14, “The Congress: Hidden Shoals”, in Time, volume LX, number 2:
   • [About Antek's bar:] Neither bright neon nor a soft fluorescence lighted either his ceiling or his walls; but there was plenty of butchershop sawdust along the floor and an old-fashioned golden goboon for every four bar stools. 1949, Nelson Algren, The Man with the Golden Arm:
   • He came into the limelight during segregation when a falling goboon brought with it a shower of something else and he earned the name of Reiny and a black N five stars. 1923, Lucky Bag (U.S. Naval Academy yearbook) for 1923, entry for "Dwight Harvey Day", p. 75

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