Definition of DOOZY

Did You Know?

While it's often maintained that the word doozy derives from the "Duesenberg" in the name of the famed Duesenberg Motor Company, this is impossible on chronological grounds. Doozy was first recorded (in the form dozy) in eastern Ohio in 1916, four years before the Duesenberg Motor Company began to manufacture passenger cars; the related adjective doozy, meaning "stylish" or "splendid," is attested considerably earlier, in 1903. So where did doozy come from? Etymologists believe that it's an altered form of the word daisy, which was used especially in the late 1800s as a slang term for someone or something considered the best.

Examples of doozy in a Sentence

They say the snowstorm tonight is going to be a doozy. Watch out for that first step. It's a doozy. Some of her comments have been real doozies. a doozy of a year

Recent Examples on the Web As time passed, the team realized the spacecraft was running low on fuel and decided its last year in orbit around Saturn would be a doozy. — Shannon Stirone, Wired, "Space Photos of the Week: Cassini's Curtain Call," 16 May 2020 And his first case with partner Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) is a doozy: a brutal quadruple murder, in which the corpses have had their hearts removed and are ritualistically painted in Day of the Dead fashion. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "Penny Dreadful: City of Angels walks a fine line between realism, the supernatural," 26 Apr. 2020 But her favorite recent commission is a doozy: a woman asked her to make copper bowls for her dog to eat and drink from. — Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "In 'Copper, Iron, and Clay,' Port Washington writer describes how she became a coppersmith," 28 Apr. 2020 Inside, the house is a carcass of rotting wood and crumbling plaster; an enormous blue tarp covers a doozy of a hole in the back wall. — Cathy Alter, chicagotribune.com, "Julia Child’s D.C. home had lost its luster. But the owner plans to make it sparkle again.," 3 Sep. 2019 There’s a doozy of a murder in Kate Weinberg’s hypnotic debut mystery, THE TRUANTS (Putnam, 311 pp., $26), one that might have met with the approval of the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times, "Murders Most Foul," 6 Mar. 2020 Chaka Khan’s national anthem before Sunday night’s NBA All-Star Game was rightly compared to Fergie’s doozy from a few years ago. — Andy Nesbitt, For The Win, "MLB commissioner Rob Manfred spit in the face of all baseball fans on Sunday," 17 Feb. 2020 Just a few hours after McConnell spoke, Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, appeared on MSNBC in a doozy of an interview with Rachel Maddow. — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, "Are the Democrats Ready for Trump’s Impeachment Trial?," 19 Jan. 2020 For me, in 2015, that meant getting out of bed (grief is physically exhausting, but grief plus third trimester is a doozy), keeping a job, taking my kids outside, and wrestling my toddler into a Mogwai costume for Halloween, by God. — Mary Katharine Ham, The Atlantic, "Parenting Styles Change in a Crisis. That’s Okay.," 8 Apr. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'doozy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.