phoney-baloney, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

phoney-baloney adj.

also phonus-balonus

(US) absurd, nonsensical, false; also as n. (see cite 1934) and excl. (see cite 1954).

1934		Oakland Trib. (CA) 25 Feb. 2/2: Dealing in what the letter of a salesman [...] termed ‘phoney-baloney accident policies’ .
1934		Ironwood Dly Globe (MI) 12 Oct. 12/2: Judge William F. Connolly [...] condemned [...] the statements given out by [the candidates] as ‘cheap phoney-baloney’.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 194: He’d dug up a couple of phoney-baloney witnesses to swear this was all a frame-up.
1950		R. Starnes Another Mug For the Bier 1210: Who was the owner of the Broken Bow? The one who engineered the phonus-bolonus deal?
1954		K. Amis Lucky Jim n.p.: Merrie England? Lutes and flutes and chase-me-round-the-maypole? Phoney-baloney!
1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 54: The phony-balony Beatniks.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 45: The wise asses that toss them phony baloney lines are called ‘stew-bums’.
1977		Maledicta 1 (Summer) 10: Consider: [...] the whole string of adjective forms: dirty bastard, lousy bastard, stinking bastard, and more hateful and more colorful variations, such as cheap phoney-baloney ass-scratching bastard.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 32: Baloney has been improved in various ways, e.g., bull-oney, phony baloney.
1991		W.S. Just Translator 106: He was a devil, all right, some people might even call him a phonus-balonus baby-faced duplicitous prick.
1998		Guardian Guide 25–31 Jul. 18: I ruined my marriage, I ruined myself. I got caught up in all that phoney-baloney thing.
2004		E. Miller ‘Practicing’ in Brooklyn Noir 112: The rule is phony baloney. Like you.
2018		Twitter 28 Aug. 🌐 Innocent children shot to bits? We’ve got to protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentleman! We must do nothing about this immediately!

In derivatives

phoney-baloneyness (n.)

absurdity, insincerity.

1995

J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 314: Giving a half-assed imitation of my old phony-baloneyness.

In compounds

phoney-baloney bit (n.) [bit n.¹ (3b)]

(US Und.) a clearly unjust or discriminatory prison sentence, esp. one based not on sound legal principles but on a technicality.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 155/2: Phony-baloney bit. (P) Any prison sentence which is manifestly unjust or discriminatory, especially one based on a legal technicality rather than on a sound principle of law.

phoney-baloney life (n.) [i.e. a ‘fake’ life sentence]

(US prison) an ostensible life sentence which can be appreciably shortened by parole.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 155/2: Phony-baloney life. (P) Any sentence of life imprisonment which may be appreciably shortened by parole. See Life. ‘Chucklehead Murphy is doing one of them phoney-baloney lifes. He can spring in a saw (ten years).’.