boffo

adjective

bof·​fo ˈbä-(ˌ)fō 

: extremely successful : sensational

Did you know?

Boffo made its print debut as a noun referring to something great: a solid joke or a good punch line. It did so right around the same time—the 1930s, at the dawn of Hollywood’s golden age—as boff, a noun with an identical meaning thought to perhaps come from “box office.” Within a few years, boffo began to be applied adjectivally to things that, like a good joke, were a big hit: performances, all-star casts, movies. To this day it is used mostly in the context of performing arts, spectator sports, and other entertainments.

Synonyms

• excellent
• terrific
• wonderful
• great
• superb
• awesome
• lovely
• stellar
• fabulous
• fantastic
• marvelous
• marvellous
• beautiful
• prime
• fine
• hot

Examples of boffo in a Sentence

a boffo performance that wowed even Broadway's toughest critics

Recent Examples on the Web

With the market tanking and worry exploding all around, affordable escapism soon will be having a boffo moment at the Broadway box office. —Chris Jones, New York Daily News, 8 Apr. 2025

But there was a time in Hollywood, long ago, when campus unrest actually was considered boffo, greenlight-worthy material. —Benjamin Svetkey, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 June 2024

When will the exhibition business be truly boffo again? —Diane Garrett, Variety, 22 Dec. 2022

Kenneth Walker III caps his amazing year with another boffo performance and Mel Tucker lays the groundwork for continued success in 2022. —Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press, 7 Dec. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1943, in the meaning defined above

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