Green’s Dictionary of Slang

groovy adj.2

also groovie
[Mezzrow & Wolfe, Really the Blues (1946): ‘He’s groovy, the way musicians are groovy when they pool their talents instead of competing with each other, work together and slip into the same groove’]

1. delightful, wonderful, pleasant, enjoyable etc.

[US]R.B. Nye ‘A Musician’s Word List’ in AS XII:1 46: groovey. Name applied to state of mind which is conducive to good playing.
[US]‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 24 May 9/7: Lillian Freeman’s old love was just as groovie as a open air-movie.
[US]C. Himes ‘Make with the Shape’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 112: You can come right on over to Eastern Pipe, and I’ll get you on as my helper. Won’t that be groovy?
[Aus]Argus (Melbourne) 15 Nov. 7/1: Wacko the beaut: the school dance is next Saturday, so bake a cake and call me cookie! I’m going to another dance the following Saturday, which will be darby, snazzy, groovy .
[US]A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 57: But he would, because the gone, groovy, unforgiveable act had been committed.
[UK]Oz 4 23/1: It’s groovy to sit around knocking knees with a lot of people whose minds are tuned-in.
[US]D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 131: Everything was clearing up and it would be a wild, groovy night.
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 524: I’m bitchin-groovy at interior decoration.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 28: You jus’ like a sister, ’cause you groovy.
[UK]Guardian G2 12 Jan. 11: Do you say ‘Oh, that’s groovy, dear’ and hit the sherry yourself?
[US]C.W. Ford Deuce’s Wild 257: They nodded to the ‘groovy’ things the small, brown man from the Middle East had to say.
[US]A. Steinberg Running the Books 13: I arrived at my stop [...] feeling sufficiently groovy.
[US]A. Steinberg Running the Books 47: Diana [...] a formerly groovy 1970s feminist.

2. (US black) sexually aroused.

[US]‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 19 Apr. 9/6: When you first meet her, and knows you’d like to ‘beat her’ [...] when you’re feeling very groovie and your thoughts ain’t bout no movie [...] when our body’s all a-tingle.

3. (US black) intoxicated by alcohol.

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 2 May 16: I know now why they bring cases of whiskey [...] it takes so much to get ’em groovey.

4. fashionable.

‘Marienne’ ‘Solid Meddlin’’ in People’s Voice (NY) 11 Apr. 30/1: Saw many cute bonnets in the Easter Parade but Edna [...] Harris’ was really ‘the grooviest’.
[US]H.A. Smith Rhubarb 19: There’s a sloppy at Bonwit’s and Myra yearns for it. It’s zoomy! It’s groovy! It’s beauteous! It’s lush! It’s eighteen bucks!
[US]N. Spinrad Bug Jack Barron 23: I’d ruin this groovy sportjac if I got cancelled and had to go out and dig ditches.
[Can]R. Caron Go-Boy! 159: Nurses, some of whom were dressed in groovy skirts, hip-hugging slacks and, best of all, skimpy shorts.
[Ire]R. Doyle Snapper 46: If you ever behave like that again in this house yeh can pack your belongin’s. Your groovy clothes an’ your shampoo.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 14: The groovy crowd in Sydney almost took our hand off for them [i.e. drugs].
[Aus]L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] [T]he Elwood Lounge, a groovy little hole in the wall just around the corner from my one bedroom flat.

5. (also groovy-bang) intoxicated by a drug, usu. marijuana.

[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 52: He’d [...] get real high and when he was groovy as a ten-cent movie he’d begin to play the blues.
[US]E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 35: You level pretty fast. I’m still up there. High and groovy.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 127: When I jack this joint off the ‘horse’ kicks my ass groovy.
[US]E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
[US]E. Richards Cocaine True 88: With the methadone, Mariella would be groovy-bang; zooted.

6. attractive.

Meyer & Ebert Beyond Valley of the Dolls [film script] You’re a groovy boy. I’d like to strap you on sometime.
StarPolish 6 Mar. 🌐 At one point, while devouring a steak during lunch with Hansen, he relays a description of her: ‘He said...how did he put it...that you’re a groovy chick.’ The disdain drips from his words like gravy from his lips.

7. (US teen) passé, out-of-date, esp. when referring to the tastes and styles of the 1960s, during which time sense 1 was the only accepted meaning.

[US]D. Hecht Skull Session 144: ‘I mean, what if I started saying groovy?’ ‘Wow, groovy, man,’ Mark said. ‘Oh, my God!’.