Blah

English

Etymology

• Sense “Idle, meaningless talk” (1940), probably imitative or echoic in origin.
• Adjective sense “bland, dull” (1919), perhaps influenced by French blasé (“bored, indifferent”).
• The blahs (“boredom, mild depression”) first attested 1969; extension of adjective sense and influenced by term the blues.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑː

Noun

Blah (countable and uncountable; plural Blahs)

1. (uncountable, informal) Nonsense; drivel; idle, meaningless talk.
2. (informal) (in plural, the blahs) A general or ambiguous feeling of discomfort, dissatisfaction, uneasiness, boredom, mild depression, etc.

Synonyms

• (nonsense, drivel): bosh, bombast, bunkum, claptrap, eyewash, fustian, rant, hooey, humbug, rubbish, twaddle
• (feeling of boredom, mild depression): malaise

Adjective

Blah (comparative more Blah, superlative most Blah)

1. (informal) Dull; uninteresting; insipid.

   Well, the new restaurant seems nice, but their menu is a little blah.

2. (informal) Low in spirit or health; down.

   I decided to go exercise rather than sit around all day feeling blah.

Interjection

blah!

1. An expression of mild frustration.
2. (When spoken repeatedly, often three times in succession: blah blah blah!) Imitative of idle, meaningless talk; used sometimes in a slightly derogatory manner to mock or downplay another's words, or to show disinterest in a diatribe, rant, instructions, unsolicited advice, parenting, etc. Also used when recalling and retelling another's words, as a substitute for the portions of the speech deemed irrelevant.
3. Representing the sound of vomiting. See bleah, bleh.

Synonyms

• (boring content): blah blah blah, yada yada yada

See also

• bleah
• bleh

Thesaurus

Laodicean, Olympian, acedia, aloof, aloofness, apathetic, apathy, arid, ataraxia, ataraxy, balderdash, baloney, banausic, barren, benumbed, benumbedness, bilge, blah-blah, blahs, blank, blase, blather, blatherskite, bloodless, bop, bosh, broken-record, bull, bullshit, bunk, bunkum, characterless, cold, colorless, comatose, comatoseness, crap, dead, desensitized, detached, detachment, dim, disinterest, disinterested, dismal, dispassion, draggy, drearisome, dreary, dry, dryasdust, dull, dullness, dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, everlasting, eyewash, fade, flapdoodle, flat, gas, guff, gup, harping, heartless, heartlessness, heavy, hebetude, hebetudinous, ho-hum, hogwash, hokum, hollow, hooey, hopeless, hopelessness, hot air, humbug, humdrum, in a stupor, inane, inappetence, indifference, indifferent, inexcitable, insipid, insouciance, insouciant, invariable, jejune, jog-trot, lack of appetite, languid, languidness, leaden, lethargic, lethargicalness, lethargy, lifeless, listless, listlessness, long-winded, low-spirited, malarkey, monotone, monotonous, moonshine, nonchalance, nonchalant, numb, numbed, numbness, pale, pallid, passive, passiveness, passivity, pedestrian, phlegm, phlegmatic, phlegmaticalness, phlegmaticness, piffle, plodding, pluckless, plucklessness, pointless, poky, ponderous, poppycock, prolix, resignation, resigned, resignedness, rot, scat, shit, singsong, slack, sloth, slow, sluggish, sluggishness, solemn, sopor, soporific, soporifousness, spiritless, spiritlessness, spunkless, spunklessness, sterile, stiff, stodgy, stoic, stuffy, stupefaction, stupefied, stupor, superficial, supine, supineness, tasteless, tedious, tommyrot, torpid, torpidity, torpidness, torpor, treadmill, tripe, uncaring, unconcern, unconcerned, uneventful, uninterested, unlively, unvarying, vapid, wind, withdrawn, withdrawnness, wooden