goon n.1
1. (also goony) a stolid, stupid person.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Cape Cod Dialect – Addenda’ in DN III:v 420: goony, n. A stupid person. | |
| in Harper’s Mag. Dec. 121/2: A goon is a person with a heavy touch as distinguished from a jigger, who has a light touch. [...] Washington was a goon, whereas Lincoln was a jigger. | |
| ‘Thimble Theatre’ [comic strip] Alice! Come here! But Haggy, why are you calling the goon? I thought we were friends. | |
| Lucifer with a Book 91: Pop’s a good old goon. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Joyful Condemned 132: Red didn’t look so bad, even with her mouth open; but the rest of them — what a crowd of goons! | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Teachers (1962) 188: Who should be the first goon I trip over coming in this morning [...] but this batty-looking old dear. | |
| Ladies’ Man (1985) 220: She was walking toward me with a big goon in tow. | |
| Breaks 218: Working as a composer and lyricist for some Oral Roberts-type goon named Reverend Howie. | |
| Llama Parlour 235: All I hadda do was convince that Grossman goon of the publicity potential. | |
| Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 46: Some shylock he owed came to the house, had these two big goons with him. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | All the Colours 265: [of a tabloid journalist] [E]ven the worst redtop goon, the crummiest door-stepping keyholing scum-sucker, was better than me. | |
| Class Act [ebook] Goons in suits checking invitations. | |
| (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Goon - inferior individual. | |
| Cherry 96: As I was going AWOL I couldn’t use the Killeen airport; there was a chance the Army would have some goons there checking paperwork. | |
 | ‘Hula Hula Boys’ in What Pluckery Is This? (28 Jan 2024) 🌐 [H]is betrothed-to-be had betrayed him with two feckless island goons. |
2. a thug; thus goonish adj., thuggish.
| Amboy Dukes 35: I’ll clout you again, you goon. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 17: Then the goons and the sharks, the small operators. | |
| Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 67: One, two, three lump-muscled apes jumped out. Then two more [...] all lump-muscled and goonish. | |
| Lowlife (2001) 187: Your goons called on me last night. | |
| Dog Soldiers (1976) 245: He’d try to piss me off so the goons could bounce me off the wall. | |
| Tourist Season (1987) 11: The goons grab the girl and take off in Sparky’s car. | |
| Pulp Fiction [film script] 94: None of them have a couple of goons sitting inside. | |
| Crosskill [ebook] Lester, an Outfit goon built like a bull. | |
| Skinny Dip 155: The goon presented his punctured knuckles for inspection. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 62: A pair of goons some loan shark had sent did the damage. | |
| ‘Dread Fellow Churls’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] The goon stuck his free hand in his left pocket. | |
| ‘Shut Up’ 🎵 They roll deep, I roll squaddy / Got about 25 goons in my posse. | |
| ‘Eat’ 🎵 My goons ready for war. | |
| (con. 1991-94) City of Margins 76: ‘Ain’t it nice I come personal, don’t send one of my goons? You don’t want to know my goons’. | |
| Stoning 18: ‘More rapes by your goon guards in the women’s dunnies?’. |
3. attrib. use of sense 2.
| Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 59: Let Folsom do the goon job [...] He should like that. |
4. non-union labour used for strike breaking, intimidation etc.
| AS XIII:3 178: A goon is a member of a labor union’s beef squad [...] and is now used to designate any representative of a labour union who uses violence and illegal coercion. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 177: goon. A stupid person, an oaf; a ruffian or tough, especially one hired to intimidate workers. | |
| Guardian Rev. 24 Sept. 11: Hughes’ goons helped to break the Hollywood unions in the early 50s. |
5. a police officer; cite 2010 refers to private detectives.
| Amer. Madam (1981) 171: Criminals with uppish tastes [...] resort at expensive whorehouses, and even use them at times, if the madam is foolish enough, as hiding places from the goons (police). | |
| Tourist Season (1987) 123: He was still furious about the goons from I.A.D. who had foraged through his house. | |
| Official and Doubtful 367: There’s another load of goons with semi-automatic truncheons over there. | |
| Outlaws (ms.) 27: Not good enough for one of the fucking goons. Nowhere near good enough for Telford muzzie man. | |
| Hilliker Curse 15: I [...] watched the detectives enter [...] I confirmed that my dad’s goons were on the job. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 127: He goons kicked down my office door. |
6. (also goony) a derog. term for a black person [? gooney n. (2)].
| Amer. Lang. Supplement I 633: [note] In the Virgin Islands [...] the blacks are called goons or goonies. | |
| Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 50: goon [perhaps shortened from gooney, a simpleton. Goonie, for a black U.S. Virgin Islander, is a possible cognate]. |
7. (UK black/gang) a friend, a fellow gang member.
| Keisha the Sket (2021) 71: ‘Cum 2 ma yard now n bring all da goonz straped up’. | |
| ‘Grip & Ride’ 🎵 If we turn up now, weapons out / Are you gonna back your goon? | |
| (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 [used derog.] Goon - low-ranking gang member. |
In compounds
1. (US) a fool.
| Growing Up in the Mid West 76: Ya goonhead! Whatsa matter, ya need telescopes? | |
| Flight 72: He glared at Randy [...] then said, ‘What the fuck is the matter with you, goonhead?’. | |
| Girls’ Night Out 98: ‘Oh, chill, you big goonhead!’ She pounded his chest with gentle fists. ‘I write for a magazine, not a porn house.’. |
2. attrib. use of sense 1.
| Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 94: A goonhead drug pusher who beats up little boys and takes everybody’s money. |
1. a group of thugs, usu. organized for a specific purpose – strike-breaking, extortion etc.
| Nation 4 Sept. 239: The ‘goon squad,’ as it is commonly called, consists of at least twenty picked thugs and ex-convicts. | |
| Amer. Guardian 15 Mar. 1: Everett Moore, assistant to Harry Bennett, Ford’s goon squad superintendent. | |
| Chicago: City On the Make 72: When it come to Democracy they had to take our brand [...] The goon squads saw to that. | |
| Long Good-Bye 196: I’ve been kind of expecting the goon squad to drop around, but they haven’t so far. I haven’t been bothered by the cops either. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 117: They weren’t part of the regular goon squad. | |
| Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 75: I went to the bar [...] where Folsom had one of the goon squads waiting. | |
| Thief’s Primer 139: In some cities it is rumored (and some cases are known) where police departments have so-called ‘goon squads’. | |
| Catch a Fire 127: The goon squads of the blustery, pistol-packing Alexander Bustamente. | |
| Guardian Weekend 10 July 21: Wilson used federal funds to establish a paramilitary security force: a praetorian guard popularly known as the Goon Squad. | |
| Intractable [ebook] At 6.30 am the next morning the goon squad arrived to take us to Grafton. | |
| Drawing Dead [ebook] The goon squad showed up [...] was all set to catch a beating. | |
| NYRB 25 Feb. 🌐 ‘[G]oon squads’ in cities like Newark—whose mosque was infamous for prostitution, bank robbery, and drug dealing—dispensed lethal violence on command. |
2. (US black) the police.
| in Amer. N&Q Nov. 117: Goon Squads [Police] Squad formed for the purpose of making especially dangerous apprehensions [HDAS]. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 66: The characterization of the police [...] connotes such perceived attributes as [...] fascistic exercise of power (gestaps, gestapos, goon squad). |
3. (US/N.Z. prison, also goonies, goons) a squad of prison guards used to quell riots or any other form of trouble.
| On the Yard (2002) 35: The door flew open and three guards entered on the double. ‘The goon squad,’ Nunn whispered. | |
| Bad (1995) 71: Behind him stood the Quentin goon squad: six giants in green overalls with three-foot clubs. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Go-Boy! 39: He pointed me out to a goon squad of club-bearing guards. | |
| House of Slammers 19: The guards on the midnight goon squad whose most frequent explanations were in the form of hickory and oak smashing against flesh and bone. | |
| Homeboy 161: A group of guards loitered by the Armory. They wore forestgreen jumpsuits and laceup hobnailed paratrooper boots [...] ‘Goon Squad’, Whisper rasped. | |
| Mr Blue 316: All places of incarceration have a goon squad, although it may be called something more politically correct than ‘goon squad’. Like ‘Reaction Team’. | |
| (con. 1975–6) Steel Toes 22: The goon squad hits all of us and a police baton smashes me into the concrete. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 80/1: goon squad, the (also the goons [...] goonies n. pl. = the goon squad. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 18: You’re going to find yourself sitting down with the rest of the so called goon squad trying to get the story together so that everybody is saying the same thing. | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 28: E.S.U. (Emergency Service Unit) or the goon squad, as the inmates call it. |
4. (US campus) a group of friends.
| UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016 5: GOON SQUAD — tight group of friends. |
(US) army surplus clothing.
| Rivethead (1992) 186: The rednecks decked out in camouflage goon suits. |