put the kibosh on

verb

"put-the-kibosh-on" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“put the kibosh on” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To halt, stop, or squelch.

Corpus desk

Index EN-put-the-kibosh-on · put the kibosh on · English

put the kibosh on · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 17 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for put the kibosh on
PropertyValue
Headwordput the kibosh on
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “put the kibosh on” in English

put the kibosh onranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

put the kibosh on is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To halt, stop, or squelch.".

No misspelling variants are generated for put the kibosh on in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: See kibosh. The correct English form is put the kibosh on, spelled P-U-T- -T-H-E- -K-I-B-O-S-H- -O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    To halt, stop, or squelch.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how put the kibosh on appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Someone really needs to go put the kibosh on that noisy party.
  2. ("Hoo-roa," ejaculates a pot-boy in a parenthesis, "put the kye-bosh on her, Mary.")

Etymology

See kibosh.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "put the kibosh on"?
"put the kibosh on" is spelled P-U-T- -T-H-E- -K-I-B-O-S-H- -O-N.
What does "put the kibosh on" mean?
As a verb, "put the kibosh on" means: To halt, stop, or squelch.
What is the origin of the word "put the kibosh on"?
See kibosh. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list