Definition of moxie
- it takes … moxie to pull up roots and go to a land where the culture and probably the language are totally foreign
- —M. J. McClary
- was impressed with his musical moxie and hired him as a solo
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He showed a lot of moxie in questioning the policy.
it was old-fashioned military moxie that got medical supplies to the disaster site in record time
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'moxie.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Hot roasted peanuts! Fresh popcorn! Ice-cold Moxie! You might have heard such a snack vendor's cry at a baseball game-if you attended it in 1924. That was the heyday of the soft drink named Moxie, which some claim outsold Coca-Cola at the height of its popularity. The beverage was a favorite of American writer E. B. White, who wrote, "Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life. This was known in the second century before Christ and is a boon to me today." By 1930, moxie had become a slang term for nerve and verve, perhaps because some people thought the drink was a tonic that could cure virtually any ill and bring vim back to even the most lethargic individual.
beans, bounce, brio, dash, drive, dynamism, energy, esprit, gas, get-up-and-go, ginger, go, gusto, hardihood, life, oomph, pep, punch, sap, snap, starch, verve, vigor, vim, vinegar, vitality, zing, zip;
debilitation, debility, delicacy, disablement, enfeeblement, faintness, feebleness, frailness, frailty, impotence, impotency, infirmity, powerlessness, puniness, slightness, softness, tenderness, weakness;
animal spirits, animation, briskness, jauntiness, liveliness, snappiness, spirit, spiritedness, sprightliness, spunk, spunkiness, vibrance, vibrancy, vivaciousness, vivacity;
ardor, élan, fervor, fire, passion, zeal;
main, metal, mettle, might, muscle, potency, power, puissance, stamina, strength;
brawniness, fitness, hardiness, huskiness, sturdiness, virility;
: the ability to be active
: courage or determination
See words that rhyme with moxie Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for moxie
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