jamboree

UK/ˌdʒæm.bəˈɹiː/

jamboree noun: a boisterous or lavish celebration or party.

Noun

jamboree (plural jamborees)

A boisterous or lavish celebration or party.
- George reeling quietly through the heavy revolving doors into this elderly place. To tip toe across the fat carpet and whisper boo at the reception desk.
  "Can I help you sir."
  Smith looking out at the eyes. Holding the counter with uncertain hands. Mouth opening and closing. Eyes fixed on all the...1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), pages 244, 245
(dated, slang) A frolic or spree.
- [']Chuck us down that net on top of the lockers, Stalky.' / 'That's all right. It's a collapsible jamboree, too. Beastly luxurious dogs these fags are. Built like a fishin'-rod.[']1898 August, Rudyard Kipling, “‘In Ambush’”, in Stalky & Co., London: Macmillan & Co., published 1899, →OCLC, page 4
- 1899m W. A. Fraser, "Raja Singh and Other Elephants" in McClure's Magazinehttps://www.google.com/books/edition/McClure_s_Magazine/8C9NAQAAMAAJ?hl=es&gbpv=1&dq=%22A+Calcutta-made+pony+cart+had+been+standing%22&pg=PA42&printsec=frontcover
  A Calcutta-made pony cart had been standing in front of the...
(scouting) A large rally of Scouts or Guides.
- The campfires provide enough plain old regular visible light to show this sorry affair for what it is: a bunch of demented Boy Scouts, a jamboree without merit badges or hygiene.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 243
- According to recent revelations, much of the jamboree’s 117.1bn won (£700,000) budget was spent on the operation of the organising committee, which seems to have included many lavish trips abroad, sometimes to countries such as Switzerland and Italy that have never hosted jamborees.2023 August 9, Raphael Rashid, “‘Worst nightmare’: South Korea mulls disastrous Scout jamboree”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
In euchre: an undefeatable hand containing the five highest cards.

Verb

jamboree (third-person singular simple present jamborees, present participle jamboreeing, simple past and past participle jamboreed)

To take part in a jamboree.

jamboree meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

jamboree in Urdu

بین الاقوامی اجتماع, موج میلہ

jamboree in Bengali

rally of Scouts or Guides: জাম্বুরি jamburi

jamboree in Malayalam

gathering, rally, convention: മഹാസമ്മേളനം, മഹാമേള, ആഘോഷമേള, ആനന്ദമേള, മഹാജനസഭായോഗം, മഹോത്സവം

jamboree in Kannada

ಉತ್ಸವ, ಸಮಾರಂಭ, ದೊಡ್ಡಪಾತ್ರೆ

More languagesFewer languages

jamboree in Arabic: مخيم muḵayyam
jamboree in Malay: jambori
jamboree in Indonesian: pesta pora, jambore, wirakarya
jamboree in Thai: งานชุมนุม ngaan-chum-num
jamboree in Vietnamese: trại họp bạn

Forms of jamboree

Noun
plural	jamborees
Verb
third-person singular present	jamborees
present participle	jamboreeing
past participle	jamboreed
past	jamboreed

Plural of jamboree: jamborees

Origin of jamboree

Unknown 19th-century American slang. Chosen by Baden-Powell in 1919 for use in the Scout Movement.

Words formed from jamboree

Questions about jamboree

What does jamboree mean?: Jamboree means a boisterous or lavish celebration or party.
What is jamboree in Urdu?: Jamboree in Urdu is بین الاقوامی اجتماع, موج میلہ. See Jamboree meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is jamboree?: Jamboree can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce jamboree?: Jamboree is pronounced /ˌdʒæm.bəˈɹiː/ (UK).
What is the plural of jamboree?: The plural of jamboree is jamborees.

Words near jamboree in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: jamboree (page history and authors); jamboree (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jamboree (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); jamboree (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-jamboree.ogg.

Cite this entry: “jamboree.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jamboree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.