Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. uncoordinated, inept.

1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 65: I bounced right up, but I’m goofy, for a fact!
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 76: Everybody thought that Dogface was half-goofy anyhow.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 366: I would put on a pair of skates myself and do a twirl with the goofy ones.
1957		R.P. Smith ‘The Goofy Girls’ in Russell Permanent Playboy (1959) 138: Whatever happened to the goofy girls? The goofy girls were wonderful. They used to have names like Flip and Bootsie, and they said things like, ‘You tell ’em, kid, I stutter’.
1961		F. Kohner Gidget Goes Hawaiian 66: He made a goofy face.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 155: He’s a goofy fat guy.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 97: Of the many fighters Frank had known [...] most had their brains knocked goofy.
2001		J. Baker Shooting in the Dark (2002) 302: Must be one of those goofy nurses’d left a pin in his shirt collar.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 101: That goofy fuckin’ actor, the one played the doctor.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 126: He was sort of a tall, goofy-looking motherfucker.

2. (also goofey, goofy-ass) silly, foolish.

1919		in Our Navy May 55: Writes a goofy gob – ‘What is the correct plural for “Jack Tar”?’ [HDAS].
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 205: He was lying back in an armchair with [...] a sort of goofy expression in his eyes.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 46: Although you canst take my word for it that I was feelin’ a bit goofy, as the sayin’ is, I didn’t lose my head.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 64: I want my two-year-old boy to learn how not to be goofey by lettin’ him look at you.
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 9: A gallery of monstrous doll-faces – pink vacuous faces, full of goofy optimism.
1940		Black Mask Mar. XXII 5: He looked a little goofy?
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 27: I was afraid of his long goofy grin that he opened up straight in your face.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 164: He had a goofy grin on his face.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 249: She made her goofy face.
1978		R.D. Pharr Giveadamn Brown (1997) 58: ‘You don’t want to go throwing no drink in this goofy dude’s eye’.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 10: Sparky rents himself a bimbo, dressses up in this goofy outfit.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 45: All those goofy, down-at-heel has-beens.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 83: ‘Large change,’ said James, smiling that goofy-ass smile of his.
1999		Metro 3 Aug. 17: Men are depicted as goofy and pompous.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 82: He’s like an oversized goofy twelve-year-old.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 7: I noticed a half-full jug of cheap wine [...] I guzzled it and got goofy and euphoric.
2012		A. McKinty ‘The Dutch Book’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] he was a youing, goofy-looking kid [...] His big mouth was always getting him into trouble.

3. strange, bizarre.

1929		D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 75: ‘You know damned well it don’t hang together, don’t make sense. Cut it out, for God's sake.’ ‘I don’t mind how goofy it is,’ I said. ‘It’s something to put back to Noonan when we get back’.
1935		W.W. McKenna ‘Heat from Texas’ in Spicy Detective Stories Nov. 🌐 The Parrot Club, buried in Greenwich Village, was the goofiest of that sector’s bumper crop.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Heads You lose’ in Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 Want to know something goofy? [...] The bullet was pumped into his grey matter after he was dead.
1970		D. Jenkins Saturday’s America 290: Foo-ball, Abe said, was not round. Foo-ball was oblong, goofy shaped.

4. mad.

1925		D. Hammett ‘The Scorched Face’ Story Omnibus (1966) 89: You’re goofy [...] What’ll that get anybody?
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 49: He had the guts to buzz the waiter . . . this world’s goin’ goofy.
1941		C. Himes ‘Face in the Moonlight’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 138: He’s a litle goofy and you won’t say anything to him.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 179: ‘I always knew you would come back,’ she said softly. ‘Even after ten years.’ I peered at her. One of us was goofy.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 154: I got five thousand ways to drive them goofy.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 268: All the screwy loony goofy neurotic fears you have.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 35: He seemed batty as a loon, goofy as a goose on ice, immaculately weird.
1999		Guardian G2 17 Nov. 13: There’s a goofy quality about Quentin.
2000		Penguin Bk of All-New Aus. Jokes 142: ‘You say here that your wife is crazy.’ Mickey replied: ‘No I didn’t. I said she’s fucking Goofy.’.

5. (US) obsessed, keen on.

1922		Ogden Standard Examiner 12 Apr. 6/5: There was one wally I was goofy about, but while i was necking with him, Harry caught a tomato.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 120: Not everybody’s as goofy about farming as you are.
1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Color of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 It was rumored that he had been goofy over Kathie at one time.
1974		D. Jenkins Dead Solid Perfect 165: He went dead solid goofy over Joy Needham.
2023		J. Jackson Pineapple Street 20: Georgiana had [. . .] an enormous, goofy, childlike, and mortifying crush. His name was Brady .

6. incomprehensible.

1968		T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 88: That this or a couple of the crackups [...] had anything to do with that goofy baboon, Dope, was something that didn’t cross the minds of the Pranksters.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 58: Marilyn made goofy right and left turns.

7. disorientated, confused.

1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 234: It needed only one word [...] and your little Mike was knocked off his pins, punch drunk, goofy.
1935		E.W. Calder ‘Too Many Diamonds’ in Spicy Detective Stories Nov. 🌐 I knew the two of you would frame it up to smack me goofy.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 221: Had he realized how goofy I really was, he might have tried almost anything.
1965		K. Marlowe Mr Madam (1967) 30: We were nearly goofy from the gas.
1976		H. Selby Jr Demon (1979) 55: This is crazy. Feeling good, feeling bad [...] was the goofiest of that sector’s bumper crop.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 162: Jesus, it’s hot! Maybe the Santa Ana winds’re making me goofy.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 92: Except for standing there and looking goofy, you did nothing.

8. (US drugs, also goofey) suffering from narcotics withdrawal.

1922		E. Murphy Black Candle 212: I had a craving and was ‘goofey’.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 309: goofy. Crazed from the lack of a drug.