Bupkis

//ˈbʌp.kɪs// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Absolutely nothing; nothing of value, significance, or substance. US, slang, uncountable

    "We searched for hours and found bupkis."

Synonyms

All synonyms
nothingzilch

Example

More examples

"We searched for hours and found bupkis."

Etymology

Borrowed prior to 1931 from Yiddish באָבקעס (bobkes), plural of באָבקע (bobke, “goat or sheep dropping”), from באָב (bob, “bean”) + ־קע (-ke) calquing Polish bobek (“oval-shaped turd”), ultimately from Proto-Slavic *bobъ (“bean, fava bean”). Popularized by American Jewish writer Sam Denoff in mid-1960s The Dick Van Dyke Show.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.