goombah

(redirected from goombahs)
Also found in: Idioms.

goom·bah

(go͝om′bä, go͞om′-)

n. Slang

A companion or associate, especially an older friend who acts as a patron, protector, or adviser.

[From Neapolitan cumpà, friend (with initial c regularly voiced to g after vowels within a sentence), from earlier, godfather, from Medieval Latin compater; see compadre.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

goombah

(ˈɡʊmbə)

a patron or mentora macho Italian-American

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive ?

The history of the Buffalo mob is replete with colorful characters: stool pigeons and stand up guys, goodfellas and goombahs, hitmen and high rollers.

Mob has colorful history

The guys use to kid Jack that if he got her pregnant Frank would send a couple of goombahs to break his legs--or worse.

Suicide by (legal) immigration

But Aliotti is clearly enjoying pairing with Azzinaro in what Aliotti affectionately calls "two Italian goombahs, just crazy and having fun."

New D line coach wants his Ducks in hot pursuit

18, Sirico and a gaggle of the show's fictional goombahs enlivened a launch party for "The Sopranos" wines, with a tasting and musical perf by Dominic "Uncle Junior" Chianese.

'Sopranos' keeps pouring it on

Trust the fungus!"), and Doctor Zhivago (1965) (whose sentimental title song, "Somewhere My Love," twice reduces Koopa's goombahs to tears).

Post-literary adaptation

He's a lively stage presence, too, though (especially next to the tall, handsome Braun) he looked more like one of Tony Soprano's goombahs than a dashing Spanish grandee.