Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also bim, bombo) a thug; a large, stupid man.

1914		Wash. Herald (DC) 1 Feb. 26/1: A feud between Jacob Bimbo anbd Jacob Inski [...] was settled today by Judge Dingbats.
1921		H.C. Witwer Leather Pushers 8: One of them bimbos which hurls a mean hammer.
1924		C.S. Montanye ‘The Might That Failed’ in Top Notch 1 Apr. 🌐 ‘Who’s the victim next week, Foxy?’ asked one of the listeners. [...] ‘A bim they call “Lucky” Watson.’.
1929		T. Thursday ‘Pay Out West’ in Western Outlaws Dec. 🌐 Cowboys, rangers, two-gun bimbos and the usual assortment of tough and tender feet.
1932		Arizona Dly Star (Tuscon, AZ) 23 July 8/3: ‘Even if your rod work is a wee bit careless I’ve got a swell bim I think you’ll work well with on a big job’.
1934		‘Maxwell Grant’ ‘Murder Marsh’ in Shadow Oct. 🌐 There’s a bimbo I’m going to get—and I need a pack of gorillas to do it.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 145: ‘Big Willie Magoon,’ he said thickly. ‘A vice squad bimbo. He thinks he’s tough.’.
1984		W. Diehl Hooligans (2003) 42: So where do these bombos fit in?

2. (Ling. Fr./Polari) a dupe, an insignificant person.

1919		D. Runyon in Little Rock Dly News (AR) 3 July 7/4: ‘No bimbo can lick me,’ he said [...] ‘What’s a bimbo,’ somebody asked [...] ‘A bimbo [...] is t-t-two degrees lower than a coo-coo-cootie’.
1928		M. West Pleasure Man (1997) Act I: Der big bimbo.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 54: ‘Listen up bimbos,’ she went. ‘We’re here to learn French, right?’.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 289/2: bimbo a dupe.

3. (orig. US) a man, usu. young.

1920		Munsey’s Mag. 71 70/2: He was tryin’ hard. He didn’t quit. Hazel wasn’t that kind of a bimbo.
1922		Wash. Times (DC) 21 Aug. 4/4: Women Be Warned. With Europe all mussed up, it’s going to be a cinch for bimbos from abroad to spill smooth social etiquette and hypnotize unsuspecting romantic damsels into matrimony.
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 516: Tonight this bimbo that calls himself McTodd is going to give a reading of his poems.
1925		D. Hammett ‘Tom, Dick, or Harry’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 244: Bill isn’t a bad bimbo, but he hasn’t any meekness.
1929		R. Coleman Girl From Back Home in Hatch & Hamalian Lost Plays of Harlem Renaissance (1996) 100: Whose the bimbo you’re running away with? Tom Hally?
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 153: Now I come to think of it, he was a funny-looking bimbo.
1944		N. Davis Rendezvous with Fear 22: That confederate must be sort of a tough bimbo.
1952		(con. 1910s) G. Fowler Schnozzola 31: We mean to find this certain bimbo and shoot him right in the head.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 25: This Cheesewright [...] is a bimbo who from the cradle up has devoted himself sedulously to aquatic exercise. [Ibid.] 102: Uncle Tom is a kindly old bimbo.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 30: Most of the bimbos to whom Roberta Wickham had been giving the bird through the years had been of the huntin’, shootin’, fishin’ type.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 135: I studied the planes and angles of my face, and decided that Fritz Brown, thirty-three-year-old ex-L.A.P.D. bimbo [...] would do.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 67: She’s twice as smart as the bimbos here think she is.

4. (orig. US, also bim, bimb, bimby) a woman.

1921		Sat. Eve. Post 194 193/2: She conveyed the information to the general atmosphere that she was a bimbo from a bamboo isle.
1922		Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 18 June 32/1: Jewel plays that bimbo, herself.
1925		Eng. Journal (US) Nov. 700: John took his bim to a dance [W&F].
1929		S.J. Perelman Dawn Ginsbergh’s Revenge 119: There was once a certain Moorish bimbo [...] by the name of Etta Falcovsky.
1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 100: This little bimbo had just been given fifty grand and a piece of blue ice that must have been eight karats.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 467: Studs Lonigan copped off a bim whose old man is lousy with dough.
c.1940		‘Joe E. Brown No. 8’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 106: The old gas bag and myself grabs a couple of China bimbs.
1943		R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 210: Usually the bim tries to give her boyfriend a bit more alibi than that.
1946		J.E. Dadswell Hey, Sucker 88: The term glittergals applies largely to performers taking part in girlesk attractions, other women on carnivals are referred to as bimbos.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 275: Kelly Weintraub is spreading a story [...] you took a bim to have an abortion.
1956		J. Thompson ‘The Cellini Chalice’ in Fireworks (1988) 84: Why, I’ve taken girls in here, really tough bimbos, and inside of three months . . .
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 116: A bim that won’t bolt while you doin’ a little jolt / is just one out of a thousand, my friend.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 240: He’d blown nearly fifteen grand on the track and show girl bimbos.
1972		R. Barrett Lovomaniacs (1973) 42: That bim he set me up with, the one from Vegas.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 5: Later that dumb bimbo returns to the line.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 51: Bored with his bimbies, and bored with his two sons.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 88: What, you opened a halfway house for bimbos!
1997		A. Frewin London Blues 20: Glam girls tarted up and expensively dressed like a page three bimbo opening a supermarket.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 114: His floozy or his bimbo, the landlady [...] called her.
2000		Indep. Rev. 4 Jan. 8: Only one retained all her long, blonde hair and limbs – she was the token bimbo.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Stuck with some bimbo trapped in an Agatha Christie time warp.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 56: I’ll look like some heartless bim who pan-fries kittens.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 109: How the hell do i know you’re not screwing some bimbo in your hotel rooms?
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 238: [P]lenty of these poor bimbos preferred to the twisted lavvies they already had.

5. an unintelligent, but attractive, young man or woman.

1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself 234: My favorite crook in the league is Charlie Teasdale, a referee whose bimbo is pictured on this page.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 81: Believe me, living in LA you come to realise that the word ‘bimbo’ is not gender-specific.
2000		Observer Screen 6 Feb. 7: Leto seeems to be carving out a strange career as the sensitive male bimbo.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Said you were just a stupid bimbo, all talk and no action.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 2: They didn’t want some blonde bimbo putting a big downer on the night.
2010		K. Richards Life 294: At first I thought Bianca was just some bimbo.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] [A] bar bimbo in a scoop-backed dress.

6. (also bim) attrib. use of sense 5, pertaining to (attractive) young women.

1989		M. Amis London Fields 134: He drools and slurps at everything remotely bim-like.
1991		D. Jenkins You Gotta Play Hurt 247: I wanted Bryce to know I was resigning from the bimbo business.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 112: Then they go back to their dark rooms and watch bimbo TV shows to keep their minds off the fight.