bazoo

English

Etymology

Probably from Dutch bazuin (“trumpet”). First attested in the mid 19th c..

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Noun

bazoo (plural bazoos)

  1. (Canada, US, dated) A simple wind instrument, such as a kazoo or tin horn.
    • 1894, “Splendid work of the National Association of Dental Faculties”, in Dominion Dental Journal‎[1], volume VI, page 221:
      It goes against the grain to toot one’s own “bazoo”
    • 2012, Sharon Davis, Every Chart Topper Tells a Story‎[2]:
      Born Charles Westover in Coopersville, Michigan, on 30 December 1939, he learned to play the bazoo, ukulele and, eventually, the guitar.
    • 2017 May 1, Peter Jensen Brown, quoting Leavenworth Weekly Times, July 21, 1870, “Bazoo, Kazoo, Bazooka”, in Early Sports and Pop Culture History Blog‎[3]:
      The bully girl with a crystal optic and tin horn was at the jollification. She “tooted her bazoo” in concert with Hon. Nelson’s horn, and wanted “White husbands or none.”
  2. (US, slang) A person's mouth.
    • 1881, Paul the Pilgrim, “A Wyoming Wedding”, in Wit and Wisdom‎[4], page 12:
      If any galoot in the mob knows of anything that mout block the game ef tuk to a higher court, let him now toot his bazoo, or else keep his jaw to himself now and forever more.
    • 1882 September 30, “Slings and Arrows”, in The Boston Daily Globe, volume XXII, number 92, Boston, Mass., →ISSN, →OCLC, page [4], column 1:
      “Don’t swear so, John. What if you should be struck dead with such horrid oaths on your lips!” said his wife soothingly. “Swear so? Jimminy crickets, by all that’s great I’m not swearing; but I am going to express my opinion of this confounded, nine cornered bazoo of a blamed rickety infernal bit of stove pipe—” Exit the wife with her hands over her ears.
    • 1902, Francis Lynde, The Master of Appleby, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 504:
      "As for the screechin', one bazoo's as good as a dozen, if so be ye blow it fierce enough."
    • 2013, Charles Earle Funk, Thereby Hangs a Tale‎[5]:
      No doubt you have heard the expression, “He blows his bazoo too much.” In Arkansas that is said of a “windy” guy who talks too much.

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