Dictionary

looby en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps from lob (“a large piece, lump”) + -y.

Meanings

1. (archaic, dialectal) A large and awkward or clumsy person; an oaf.
   • ‘Depend upon it, Sir, a savage, when he is hungry, will not carry about with him a looby of nine years old, who cannot help himself.’ 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 1227:
   • Thus while I tell the truth about loobies, my reader's imagination need not be entirely excluded from an occupation with lords […]. 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book IV, chapter 35:

Forms

Deriveds

loobily