Definition of "balderdash"
balderdash
noun
uncountable
Senseless talk or writing; nonsense.
Quotations
[He] has the audacity to demand of us, for this twattle, a ‘speedy insertion and prompt pay.’ We neither insert nor purchase any stuff of the sort. There can be no doubt, however, that he would meet with a ready sale for all the balderdash he can scribble, at the office of either the ‘Rowdy-Dow,’ the ‘Lollipop,’ or the ‘Goosetherumfoodle.’
1844 December, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq.”, in Southern Literary Messenger, volume 10, page 720
A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?B.W. Wooster: My dear old Gussie, that is how people think Irish people talk.
1992 April 26, “Hot Off the Press”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5
(archaic) A worthless mixture, especially of liquors.
Quotations
Indeede Beere, by a Mixture of Wine, it enjoyes approbation amongst some few (that hardly understand wherefore) but then it is no longer Beere, but hath lost both Name and Nature, and is called Balderdash (an Utopian denomination) [...]
1637, John Taylor, Drinke and Welcome, London: Anne Griffin, “Beere,”
(obsolete) Obscene language or writing.
Quotations
Trugge, therefore, (who has a foul mouth of his own, when he pleases) talked balderdash to Mrs. Sudberry, through the key-hole, which she did not answer, for, indeed, she seems a civil spoken woman, truly [...]
1776, Samuel Jackson Pratt, chapter 72, in Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, volume 4, London: G. Robinson & J. Bew, page 46
With me your work will be easy and your life happy, with him you will be a drudge and the lacquey of a drudge [...]: from me you will hear none but pious and edifying conversation; from them nothing but balderdash and blasphemy in an outlandish dialect [...]
1795, Richard Cumberland, Henry, London: Charles Dilly, Volume I, Book 1, Chapter 6, p. 42
verb
third-person singular simple present balderdashes, present participle balderdashing, simple past and past participle balderdashed
(archaic) To mix or adulterate.
Quotations