Word.ws English Dictionary

joey

/ˈd͡ʒoʊ.i/

joey noun: the immature young of a marsupial, notably a junior kangaroo, but also a young wallaby, koala, etc. Also the ellipsis of joey word.

joey: the immature young of a marsupial, notably a junior kangaroo, but also a young wallaby, koala, etc
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

joey (plural joeys)

  1. The immature young of a marsupial, notably a junior kangaroo, but also a young wallaby, koala, etc.
    • As soon as a joey is born, it crawls into its mother's pouch. The joey grows in the pouch.2006, Bobbie Kalman, Robin R. Johnson, Koalas and Other Marsupials, Crabtree Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 9
  2. (Australia, slang) A young child.
  3. (Ireland, UK, slang) A parcel smuggled in to an inmate.
    • "Visit in two days though," said Tommo. "Hang in there mate, got a joey coming, we'll be sweet then."2012, John Hoskison, Inside: One Man's Experience of Prison

Noun (2)

joey (plural joeys)

  1. A kind of clown.

Noun (3)

joey (plural joeys)

  1. (UK, slang) A member of the Royal Marines.
    Synonyms:
    jolly

Noun (4)

joey (plural joeys)

  1. (dated, derogatory, offensive, slang) A person with cerebral palsy.
  2. (dated, derogatory, offensive, slang) A stupid person.

Noun (5)

joey (plural joeys)

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) A fourpenny piece, or its value; fourpence worth.
    • a joey of brandy

Proper noun capitalized: Joey

  1. A diminutive of the male given names Joe and Joseph.
    • Indeed what do the tensomethings, who might be watching the show at that hour, make of jokes like Joey telling Chandler that his uncle Sal has a really big tongue.1996, Television Quarterly: The Journal of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, volume XXVIII, number 3, page 4
    • And not to rub salt in wounds, when it comes to making mincemeat of the competition, American Joey Chestnut is still top banana.2015 July 2, Michael Pearson, “6 things to know about hot dog king Joey Chestnut”, in CNN
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Josephine.

Also used as

joey is also the ellipsis of joey word.

joey meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam

joey in Tamil

ஜோய், ஜோயி

joey in Bengali

জোয়ি, জোয়ে

joey in Telugu

జోయ్, జోయి

joey in Malayalam

ജോയി
More languagesFewer languages
joey in Kannada
ಜೋಯ್, ಜೋಯಿ
joey in Gujarati
જોય
joey in Odia
ଜୋଯ଼ି
joey in Nepali
जोयी
joey in Malay
anak kanggaru, anak koala, anak walabi

Examples of joey in a sentence

  • A passel of joeys (baby possums) came right up to the canoe.
  • Joey, on the other hand, claims he is a mentalcel: involuntary celibate due to his mental challenges.
  • Joey Logano, who's hotter than a pistol, won the NASCAR Chase race at Kansas Sunday.

All 14 example sentences with joey

Synonyms of joey

Forms of joey

pluraljoeys

Plural of joey: joeys

Origin of joey

Unknown. Older and more general sources state that joey comes from an Australian Aboriginal language (cited as joè), but newer sources that focus on Australian English and Aboriginal languages say the origin is unknown. The Australian National Dictionary includes a sense of “young possum” with citations predating the earliest “young kangaroo” citations.

From Joseph Grimaldi (1778–1837), a popular English entertainer.

From British TV personality Joey Deacon (1920–1981), who was the focus of Blue Peter's 1981 charity campaign. The programme was aimed at children, who then picked the term up and used it as an insult.

Words formed from joey

Phrases with joey

Words that rhyme with joey

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about joey

What does joey mean?
Joey means the immature young of a marsupial, notably a junior kangaroo, but also a young wallaby, koala, etc.
What is joey in Tamil?
Joey in Tamil is ஜோய், ஜோயி. See Joey meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is joey?
Joey can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce joey?
Joey is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒoʊ.i/.
What is the plural of joey?
The plural of joey is joeys.

Words near joey in the dictionary

  1. Joetard
  2. Joetards
  3. joever
  4. joewood
  5. joewoods
  6. joey
  7. joey word
  8. joey words
  9. joeys
  10. Joffe
  11. Joffes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: joey (page history and authors); Joey (page history and authors); joey (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joey (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joey (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joey (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joey (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joey (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joey (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); joey (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-joey.ogg.

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