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kibosh - 5 dictionary results

ki⋅bosh

  [kahy-bosh, ki-bosh]
Use kibosh in a Sentence
–noun Informal.
1. nonsense.
—Idiom
2. put the kibosh on, to put an end to; squelch; check: Another such injury may put the kibosh on her athletic career.
Origin:
1830–40; of obscure orig.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ki·bosh   (kī'bŏsh', kī-bŏsh')   
n.   Informal
A checking or restraining element: had to put the kibosh on a poorly conceived plan.

[Origin unknown.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Kibosh

Ki"bosh\, n. 1. Nonsense; stuff; also, fashion; style. [Slang]

2. Portland cement when thrown or blown into the recesses of carved stonework to intensify the shadows.

To put the kibosh on, to do for; to dispose of. [Slang]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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kibosh 
1836, kye-bosk, in slang phrase put the kibosh on, of unknown origin, despite intense speculation. Looks Yiddish, but origin in early 19c. English slang seems to argue against this. One candidate is Ir. caip bháis, caipín báis "cap of death," sometimes said to be the black cap a judge would don when pronouncing a death sentence, but in other sources identified as a gruesome method of execution "employed by Brit. forces against 1798 insurgents" [Bernard Share, "Slanguage, A Dictionary of Irish Slang"]. Or it may somehow be connected with Turkish bosh (see bosh).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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kibosh

see put the kibosh on.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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