Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a person, a fellow, a man; there is a slight overtone of clownishness.

1918		J.E. Rendinell diary 27 June in One Man’s War (1928) 123: One bozo says, ‘Joe, the last guy who cut my hair got bumped off.’ [Ibid.] 18 July 157: That bozo had the German colonel marching in front.
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 515: Gosh-dingit, you leave me a coupla days back saying you’re going to stick up this bozo.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 34: Wise guy [...] Can y’ beat it —? Wonder how many kinds of a jackass that bozo thinks I am?
1935		C.G. Finney Circus of Dr Lao 87: Well, the Chinks they haul out the last guy, a great big bozo.
1942		H. Miller Roofs of Paris (1983) 46: What the fuck’s wrong with you bozos, anyway?
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 52: [A] broad-shouldered bozo of about thirty.
1952		L. Hughes Laughing to Keep from Crying 61: I spit in a bozo’s eye yesterday and killed him stone dead! I spit bullets.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 88: One is entitled to expect even bozos of course fibre to have a certain amount of delicacy.
1964		Kerouac letter in Charters II (1999) 377: What these bozos and their friends are up to now is simply the last act in their original adoption and betrayal of any truly ‘beat’ credo.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 72: Some organic-looking bozo in rim-less glasses.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 100: This bozo kept dragging me round with him.
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 73: Did’ju hear this bozo say Petey or din’chu?
1999		Indep. Rev. 9 Aug. 1: Why is the acclaimed author of One Flew OverThe Cuckoo’s Nest [...] travelling around the country with ‘a bunch of bozos’?
2000		Indep. Rev. 25 Feb. 14: With Commons all-night jamming / We’ll wig those bozos out.
2002		S. Maloney Something Fishy (2006) 41: A bunch of bozos were playing pool.

2. as a term of address.

1924		Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 20: ‘Say, bozo,’ Cutie said, handing him an O.O. [...] ‘what kind of racket is this?’.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 159: Hold on there, bozo, not so fast!
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 68: Well, bozos [...] here I am again.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 122: Listen, Bozo, d’you want to make a thousand pounds a week?
1975		H. Ellison ‘Along the Scenic Route’ in Deathbird Stories (1978) 44: ‘Boze, you de-mote me, true!’ ‘And stop calling me a bozo, you lousy degenerate.’.
1986		H.B. Gilmour Pretty in Pink 143: You got a problem, bozo?

3. a fool, an idiot.

1929		Dayton Herald (OH) 18 Apr. 28/2: ‘I am not a bum. I maybe a bozo — may be, mind you — but I am by no means a bum’.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 17: You think that bozo looks good, do you?
1939		Dos Passos Adventures of a Young Man 255: Those bozos are getting my goat.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Man’s Shakedown’ in Dan Turner Detective Mar. 🌐 Waldring was a runty, lard-faced bozo who owned and operated a minor independent neighborhood movie theater.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: Recruit [...] bozo.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 319: Take a look at them fat old bozos out in the other room and see what high livin’ and drink and no exercise does to yer.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 87: Bozo A person who always does the wrong thing.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 26: I can handle that bozo.
1983		R. Price Breaks 115: She must have seen ten thousand precocious bozos like me.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 5: The Bus Bozo wouldn’t let up until she told him her real name.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 141: I’m going to throw it away as soon as I get these bozos out the door.
[2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Bozo — Character who insults customers to induce them to try to throw balls to spill him in a dunk tank].
2017		Young M.A. ‘OOOUUU’ 🎵 The other nigga, he a bozo.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] ‘You gave it to that bozo Doug Thunkleton’.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 112: ‘If either of these bozos come back, call me’.

4. a tough, a thug.

1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 148: We can find what flat dem bozos come out of.
1936		R.L. Bellem ‘Falling Star’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 The masked bozo walked towards me. He shoved the Filipino wren ahead of him toward my desk.
1937		J. Tully Bruiser 68: There ain’t nobody knockin’ this bozo out of the ring.
1942		W.R. Burnett Quick Brown Fox 225: ‘It’ll make a hell of a difference,’ shouted Joe, ‘if all us guys all over the country lay down and let bozos like Harding trample over us’.
1960		P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 65: By seven I had lined up five bozos for a quick job on Bonetti’s depot [...] large of muscle and small of head.
1979		Fantastic Four Annual 34: That gave that masked bozo time to climb down here.
2000		Indep. 7 Feb. 18: The usual throng of villainous-looking musclemen and huge-thighed bozos.