goon.
A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence.
Meaning & usage
A thug; a usually muscular henchman with little intelligence.
A hired and paid person who is assigned to terrorize and kill opponents.
A fool; someone who is silly, stupid, awkward, or outlandish.
An enforcer or fighter.
A German guard in a prisoner-of-war camp.
One hired to legally kidnap a child and forcibly transport them to a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness therapy, or a similar rehabilitation facility.
Box wine.
A member of the comedy website Something Awful.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-ōm Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ Proto-Germanic *gumô Proto-West Germanic *gumō Old English guma Middle English gone? English gooney English goon Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony (“simpleton”), used circa 1580, of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural). * Etymology 1, noun sense 1 ("hired thug"; circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series. * Etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("fool") was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. * Etymology 1, noun sense 5 ("guard") was influenced by both etymology 1, noun sense 1 and etymology 1, noun sense 3, though not by The Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII.
To act like a goon; to act in an intimidating or aggressive way towards opponents.
To legally kidnap a child and forcibly transport them to a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness therapy, or a similar rehabilitation facility.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-ōm Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ Proto-Germanic *gumô Proto-West Germanic *gumō Old English guma Middle English gone? English gooney English goon Shortened from gooney, from obsolete gony (“simpleton”), used circa 1580, of unknown origin. Perhaps a familiar term derived from Middle English gone, a variant of gome (“man, person”). Gony was applied by sailors to the albatross and similar big, clumsy birds (circa 1839). The term goon first carried the meaning "stupid person" (circa 1921). Compare Scots goni, guni (“a bogey, bugbear, hobgoblin”), dialectal Swedish gonnar (“elves, goblins”, plural). * Etymology 1, noun sense 1 ("hired thug"; circa 1938) is largely influenced by the comic strip character Alice the Goon from the Popeye series. * Etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("fool") was reinforced by the popular radio program, The Goon Show, starring Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. * Etymology 1, noun sense 5 ("guard") was influenced by both etymology 1, noun sense 1 and etymology 1, noun sense 3, though not by The Goon Show reference, which arose about 10 years after WWII.
To masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax.
To masturbate for long periods of time without reaching a climax. To masturbate (in general).
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-ōm Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ Proto-Germanic *gumô Proto-West Germanic *gumō Old English guma Middle English gone? English gooney English goon? English goon Possibly derived from etymology 1, from etymology 1, noun sense 3 ("a fool; a stupid person"), or from etymology 1, noun sense 1 ("a thug").
A wine flagon or cask.
Cheap or inferior cask wine.
Where this word comes from
Perhaps diminutive slang for flagon or from Aboriginal English goom.
A Sino-Japanese kanji pronunciation layer, considered the first Sino-Japanese kanji reading type used in Japan.
The Buddhist term 権化 is read as gonge, using the kanji's goon readings.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Japanese 呉音 (goon).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.