Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Loud or noisy and lively or unrestrained: synonym: vociferous.
  • adjective Rough and stormy; violent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Rough; coarse; stout; stiff.
  • Rough and massive; bulky; cumbrous; clumsy.
  • Rough in operation or action; violent; vehement.
  • Rough and stormy: applied to the weather, the waves, etc.
  • Exposed to the turbulence of the elements: as, a boisterous headland; a boisterous passage.
  • Fierce; savage; truculent; full of violence: as, boisterous war.
  • Turbulent; rough and noisy; clamorous: applied to persons or their actions: as, a boisterous man; boisterous merriment; a boisterous game.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Rough or rude; unbending; unyielding; strong; powerful.
  • adjective Exhibiting tumultuous violence and fury; acting with noisy turbulence; violent; rough; stormy.
  • adjective Noisy; rough; turbulent.
  • adjective rare Vehement; excessive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Full of energy; exuberant; noisy.
  • adjective Characterized by violence and agitation; wild; stormy.
  • adjective Having or resembling animal exuberance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective full of rough and exuberant animal spirits
  • adjective noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
  • adjective violently agitated and turbulent

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English boistres, variant of boistous, rude, rough, perhaps from Old French boisteus, lame, limping, from boiste, knee joint.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

from Middle English boistous, from Anglo-Norman bustous ("rough"), perhaps from Old French boitous ("noisy")

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Examples

Comments

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  • Bett's big and boisterous bunyuns bugged the bajeebers out of Bill.

    January 11, 2007

  • In what way does this word sound edible? (See mollusque's list Not Edible.)

    March 15, 2011

  • oysters

    Also not edible in my opinion.

    March 15, 2011

  • Gotcha. It's clear to me now. Thanks.

    March 16, 2011

  • See love comments

    March 26, 2012