Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also goofbrain, goofhead) a fool, a blunderer.

1902		Colorado Springs Gazette 2 Mar. 17: ‘For below the people’s elect were spread. / Some were statesmen, in wisdom born and bred, / While some were muggled goofs with necks of red.’ The poet seems ignorant of the fact that no legislature is complete without a few goofs. [...] The poet seems to forget that this is not his legislature. It is ours, and if there are goofs there, they are ours too.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Carmen’ in Gullible’s Travels 35: ‘I don’t never go to the same show twice.’ ‘It ain’t the same show, you goof!’ I says. ‘They change the bill every day.’.
1929		M. Levin Reporter 26: A steaming mucky passionate goof had manhandled those fresh curves.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 298: Studs told his girl that the goof had water on the brain.
1940		N.Y. Herald Trib. 17 July 38/2: [advert] [...] But definitely!; scram!; Corny; Shut-eye; check!; In the groove; goof; okie-dokie!
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 59: Boys in general have a great flair for derogatory and vituperative expression [...] swot, swank, sneak, jew, swine, tick, scoff, cad, blog, nip, oik, lout, wet, drip, squit, squirt, mug, scug, sap, simp, seet, gump, muff, goof, goop, waft.
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 48: Keep your head down, you goof, or he’ll see us!
1952		B. Appel Plunder (2005) 327: ‘S’my money.’ ‘I’m only borrowing it, you crazy goofhead.’.
1959		‘Don Elliott’ Gang Girl (2011) 21: The poor goof had been drooling to do that for three years.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 23: While not a super-goof like some of the female goofs I’d met, she was quite goofy enough.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 36: Fellow prisoners will classify him as a wheel, a solid guy, a tough guy, a goof [...] or, if he is thought to be an informer, a rat.
1989		J. Lansdale Savage Season (1996) 112: Think I want the world to know I got snookered by you goofs?
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 176: goof. A stupid fellow, also called a goofball.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 73: You goddam motherfucking goofbrains.

2. a form of derog. address.

1932

(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 81: Hello, Goof!

3. an eccentric, crazy person.

1912		Coshocton (OH) Trib. 15 Mar. [headline] Kid Gleason’s goofs defeated the regulars.
1915		in Baseball Mag. June No. 2 62: An’ what inell didja say that goof’s name was what was tuh pitch?
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 8: That picture [...] didn’t give me much confidence in the unfortunate goof’s ability to woo and win.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 323: Oh, boy, wot a goof!
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 36: Start dealin’ to yerself now like a goof goin’ soft in the head.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 14: George McCrae, a most successful pusher [...] is scornful of his customers. He calls them ‘goofs’.
1960		Kerouac letter 19 Jan. in Charters II (1999) 247: I dont have to put sign on door rejecting goofs, I’d told my mother to simply tell everybody I had an apt. in NY and wasnt home any more.
1971		B. Crump ‘Bastards I Have Met’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 267: You may have got the impression from all this that Arney was a goof.
1986		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 1 Feb. 45/4: This Sledge is an oddball, a looney, a goof.
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Goof: An insult. A complete idiot who has no pull in the prison.
2010		W.D. Myers Lockdown 104: ‘That guy was a goof’.

4. (US) something very unpleasant.

1957

Kerouac On The Road (1972) 80: The goof of terror took over my thoughts.

5. (US) an unsophisticated rustic.

1957

H.B. Allen ‘Pejorative Terms for Midwest Farmers’ in AS XXXIII:4 265: [...] goof.

6. (US) a mistake.

1956		L. Shapiro Sixth of June (1958) 208: It’s your last goof, Dan. Next time you won’t know what hit you till you land up at a court-martial.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 59: ‘Is it long enough for a jet?’ ‘Are you kidding? [...] do you think I’d make a goof like that, fer Chrissake?’.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 281: They can make a thousand goofs [...] You can’t make one.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 176: goof. [...] a silly mistake.
1994		Edwin & Bernard Rational-Emotive Consultation in Applied Settings 158: When I make a goof or fail at school, I’m just being human, not bad or a fool!
2005		in J. Lauterer Community Journalism 257: I work in the town where my [...] teachers still live ... and when I make a goof, they’ll see me.

7. (US) a joke, a surprise; thus goofs, fun.

1969		‘Groupie Gloss.’ on A. Lorber Groupies [album] Goof: an event that occurs contrary to normal social behavior; sometimes just for the fun of it.
1974		J. Lahr Hot to Trot 195: He introduces me as his wife and her as his mistress. It’s a goof.
1985		G. Tate ‘Atomic Dog’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 30: ‘March to the Witch’s Castle’. A fairy-tale goof? Nope, a holy-roller preacher’s benediction for soldiers returning from Viet Nam.
1992		R. Price Clockers 349: The kid told his lawyer [...] he did it just as a goof.
1999		Guardian Media 2 Aug. 5: It was just a goof.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 372: She put out more knick-knees. She put out more ad-libs and goofs.
2003		Mad mag. Mar. 26: You should do it. It’s a goof.
2013		T. Dorsey Riptide Ultra-Glide 142: ‘Lenny thought the request for an interview was a hoax, but played along anyway as a goof’.

8. an average person, no foolishness implied.

1972

C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 100: Now take the average goof who has worked all week and is looking for a little bit of [...] entertainment.