blurb
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
a short piece of writing on the back of a book or on a website that describes the story to attract customers.
a brief summary or promotional text, typically appearing on the dust jacket or back cover of a book, intended to stimulate interest.
Simple“I read the blurb on the back of the novel to see if it sounded interesting.”
In context“The publisher requested a catchy blurb from a famous author to boost the debut novelist's credibility before the official launch.”
Synonyms
Coined by American humorist Gelett Burgess in 1907 on a dust jacket at a trade association dinner. The dust jacket said “YES, this is a “BLURB”!” and featured a (fictitious) “Miss Belinda Blurb” shown calling out, described as “in the act of blurbing”.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.