Idiom idiom
booby prize
Meaning
A prize or status, often unwelcome, awarded as a joke or disincentive to the loser of a contest or for poor performance.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I lost the race and won a silly booby prize.”
“The team finished last in the tournament and received a rubber chicken as a booby prize.”
“Despite his earnest efforts to win the competition, he was ultimately awarded the booby prize, a humiliating token of his failure that the audience found quite amusing.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026