crotch goblin
- noun
- Offensive
:
mocoso
- He joked that his three-year-old niece was a certified crotch goblin at family gatherings.
Examples
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Their new babysitter seemed unfazed by the chaos their crotch goblins created every afternoon.
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After hours with the crotch goblin, she was ready for a quiet night in.
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My little brother is such a crotch goblin!
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Those crotch goblins are running around the park.
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After hours with the crotch goblin, she was ready for a quiet night in.
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He joked that his three-year-old niece was a certified crotch goblin at family gatherings.
-
Their new babysitter seemed unfazed by the chaos their crotch goblins created every afternoon.
Synonyms
9
7.5
A person who is small or weak and not taken seriously, often in a teasing way
1
8.2
A small child who makes trouble in a playful way
A joking, slightly rude way to call someone's children
A silly, clumsy person or a small child who sits in someone's lap
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components give a clear image: 'goblin' suggests a small, naughty creature and 'crotch' specifies bodily location, so a learner can plausibly infer a small troublesome person associated with a parent's crotch (i.e. a clingy or unruly young child). However, this is slangy, metaphorical and culture-specific, and the precise mapping to 'mischievous/unruly child' is not fully predictable for a B1 learner without exposure.
Etymology
Crotch goblin makes a silly image by joining crotch (the area where small children often cling or run around an adult's legs) and goblin (a small, naughty creature), so you can imagine a tiny troublemaker at your feet. That's why people use it jokingly to mean a 'mischievous or unruly child'.