Dictionary

killjoy en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈkɪlˌd͡ʒɔɪ/ (Canada, US)

Etymology

From kill + joy, first attested in 1776.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, qualifier:occasionally endearing) A person who is anti-fun, or prevents others from having fun.
   • “If you mean me, sir, I call you and every one else to the inspection of my professional life. As to Christian or unchristian, I repudiate your canting palavering Christianity; and as to the way in which I spend my income, it is not my principle to maintain thieves and cheat offspring of their due inheritance in order to support religion and set myself up as a saintly Killjoy....” 1871, George Eliot, Middlemarch:
   • He stalked behind her simple narrative, a kill-joy parent, hasty, intolerant, keeping a special cane to enforce the authority of his sadistic God[.] 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 123:
   • December 10 2005, Sam Murphy in The Guardian, A sober thought Just in time for the party season, some old killjoys at the journal Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise have released their findings on the effects on muscle of prolonged heavy alcohol intake (six weeks is prolonged, apparently). The bad news is that it seems too much boozing puts all that effort in the gym to waste - in the study, alcohol prevented the usual resistance-training-induced muscle response that leads to increased size and strength.
   • Make a noise with your toys And ignore the killjoys ‘Cos it’s cliched To be cynical At Christmas 1993, “It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas”, in Trouble Over Bridgwater, performed by Half Man Half Biscuit:
   • What kill-joy have we here? […] I feel it in my bones some rascal is come to Galing, one that bringeth ill hap in his pocket and a shadow athwart the sun on this our day of festival. 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 7:

Forms

Deriveds

killjoyism

Synonyms

buzzkill · miserabilist · dampener · spoilsport · party pooper · fun police