Doozy

//ˈduːzi// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something that is extraordinary: often troublesome, difficult or problematic, but sometimes extraordinary in a positive sense. US, colloquial

    "Most of the test was easy, but the last question was a doozy."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of high quality; remarkable; excellent. US, dated, not-comparable, slang, usually

    "As soon as the races were billed he began to evolve Schemes — one Doozy scheme followed the other..."

  2. 2
    Sporty, ostentatious, flashy. US, dated, not-comparable, slang, usually

    "Who was that doozy fellow I saw you with?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
lulululu

Example

More examples

"Most of the test was easy, but the last question was a doozy."

Etymology

Unknown. First appearance 1903. Perhaps from daisy (“the flower”) (Rudyard Kipling used daisy in this sense) or the name of Italian actress Eleonora Duse. The automobile manufacturer Duesenberg is often erroneously cited as the origin, but the word existed more than a decade earlier. Alternatively, possibly from Polish duży, but this is chronologically unlikely and not attested in period sources.

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