woobie

n. a security blanket; a blankie; a favorite toy or object. Also wooby. Subjects: English, United States, Colloquial

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Citations: 1989 [billd@fps.com (Bill Davids_ on)] Usenet: rec.arts.movies (Dec. 2) “Batman (spoiler)”: The scene where he was trying to tell Vicky Vale that he was really Batman reminded me of Mr. Mom where Keaton is trying to explain to his son that he’ll get him another “wooby.” 1998 [SJSNYDR] Usenet: alt.toys.gi-joe (Sept. 26) “Re: What’s in the pack?”: Almost forgot the most important thing! My WOOBIE!! You might call it poncho liner. It’s a lifesaver on those cold nights in the patrol base. 1999 Rita Kempley Washington Post (Oct. 1) “‘Grouchland’: Everything’s A-Okay” p. C5: The resident villain, Huxley (Mandy Patinkin, suitably silly in a scenery-chewing turn), steals Elmo’s “wooby”—his word for the blanket—thus forcing the littlest Muppet on a perilous quest to retrieve it. 1999 Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.) (Dec. 5) “Myers’ Family Comes Together To Help Heal Grief” (in Cincinnati, Ohio): In the same way that each member of the family chose something that represented them, and placed it in Chip’s casket. Adam and Holly and their children chose Connor’s pacifier and Janie’s “woobie.” 2004 Gwen Schmidt Library Squirrel (Can.) (Nov. 20) “The Woobie”: I don’t actually even know how to spell the word “woobie.” All I know is that the Engineer always used it to mean “a shirt that is really warm and comfortable, but that is in such bad shape that you could never wear it outside your house.”

Posted 23 Nov 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

2. in fandom and fanfiction circles,

“A character, usually male and good-looking, who is constantly be in a state of woe, misery, or sheer unlucky suckitude to a degree that fans want to figuratively scoop him up and cuddle him. This causes friction when fans of normally “unwoobie” characters (ie. Lucius Malfoy) go wildly out of the canon way to concoct ways to make him/her a woobie and thus deserving of much mooshy sympathy.” from http://www.subreality.com /glossary/terms.htm#W

by ruthc 13 Feb 06, 0201 GMT

Second example of the fannish use of woobie:

“A woobie (named for a child’s security blanket) is that character you want to wrap in a blanket and feed soup to when he suffers so very beautifully. Woobification of a character is a curious, audience-driven phenomenon, divorced almost entirely from the character’s canonical morality, as witnessed by the woobification of Lex Luthor on Smallville.”
http://www.tvtropes.org/p mwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/The Woobie
which includes multifandom examples

Woobification can tie into a disturbing hurt/comfort dynamic, in which fans enjoy seeing the Woobie tortured, if only for the chance to wish the hurt away.

A properly executed Woobie inspires deep fannish devotion. A poorly executed Woobie earns scoffing and mockery, perhaps at the same time.” from http://www.tvtropes.org/p mwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/The Woobie

by ruthc 13 Feb 06, 0211 GMT

my cat woobie got put to sleep yesterday and she was 13 years old. she had liqid in her lungs and we had to put her down.she was my woobie.she comforted me and knoe that shes gone i need her more thatn ever. she was a woobie. and my family will miss her so much

by emily zaborowski 16 Feb 07, 0527 GMT

“Woobie” -See South Park; any episode with Kyle Brovlovski in it.

My giant muppet-like half-Great Pyrenese/half-Lab puppy (120lbs of puppy) is nicknamed “Woobie”.

Woobie is an affectionate term!

by Elizabeth (Liz) 19 Sep 07, 0850 GMT

Well, as one of my enlisted Soldiers once put it to me, “Woobie cold without it.”

by Tony 14 Dec 07, 0224 GMT

Woobie is an alter ego that people turn to when depressed.

by Ruby 16 Jan 08, 1135 GMT

my best friend and i call each other wooby. we are wooby and wooby.now for the first time i thought i might google on the word, and much to my surprise, it not only already exists, but it also means what we want to express with it.
mariet de haan
the netherlands

by mariet de haan 31 May 08, 0402 GMT

Go with the kids blanket!

- Todd Charske

by Todd Charske 16 Dec 08, 0654 GMT