What does bazoo mean?
Bazoo is an informal American slang term for the mouth, particularly when it is being used for loud, boastful, or annoying talk. It appears most often in the familiar imperative 'shut your bazoo,' a colorful way of telling someone to stop talking, and in the expression 'blow one's own bazoo,' meaning to brag or trumpet one's own achievements. The word carries a comic, mildly irreverent tone rather than real hostility, which has helped it survive in casual speech even though its heyday was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its origin lies in the Dutch word bazuin, meaning a trumpet, which also gave English the name of the bazooka weapon — making bazoo and bazooka distant linguistic relatives. For anyone interested in the quirks of American vernacular, bazoo is a small but vivid piece of slang heritage.
nounA person's mouth, especially when talking loudly or boastfully. An American slang term, chiefly in the phrase 'shut your bazoo.'
- The mouth, especially as the source of loud or boastful talk (American slang).
"He kept bragging about his fishing skills until someone finally told him to shut his bazoo."
"Shut your bazoo and listen for once."
"He was blowing his own bazoo about how much money he'd made."
Rarely pluralized in practice, since each person has one mouth; the plural appears mainly in humorous or collective contexts.
"All three kids had their bazoos going at once."
'Bazoo' and 'bazooka' are long-lost cousins — both trace back to the Dutch word for a trumpet.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bazoo
Bazoo derives from the Dutch word bazuin, meaning a trumpet or horn, which entered American usage via Dutch settlers and evolved into slang for the human mouth — the idea being that a noisy mouth is like a blaring horn. The same Dutch root underlies the name of the bazooka, the musical-instrument-shaped weapon invented in the 1940s, so the two words share a common ancestor despite their very different meanings. Bazoo became established in nineteenth-century American colloquial speech and remains recognizable today chiefly through set phrases.
How bazoo is actually used
Informal American slang, now somewhat dated but still recognized. Often used in the imperative phrase 'shut your bazoo' or in 'blow one's own bazoo,' meaning to boast. Carries a mildly comic or dismissive connotation rather than genuine offense.
Easily confused with bazoo
A bazooka is a shoulder-fired rocket weapon; a bazoo is slang for the mouth — they share only a distant Dutch root.