scooby
British Cockney rhyming slang for "clue," shortened from "Scooby Doo." Almost always used in the negative — "I haven’t got a scooby" — to mean you have no idea what someone is talking about or how to do something.
Definitions
British Cockney rhyming slang for "clue," shortened from "Scooby Doo." Almost always used in the negative — "I haven’t got a scooby" — to mean you have no idea what someone is talking about or how to do something. The phrasing is casual and pubby, common across the UK and Ireland in everyday speech, comedy, and football podcasts. Outside Britain it can sound dated or twee, but in its home territory it remains a perfectly natural way to admit cluelessness.
How does this thing work? Mate, I haven’t got a scooby.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
Other words near "scooby" (S)
Browse all slang words starting with S.
Related terms
Semantically related
- scobby65%
(UK, dialect, archaic) The chaffinch.
- scobe61%
(Ireland, slang) A chav or ned; a delinquent.
- I should cocoa61%
(Cockney rhyming slang, British, dated, humorous) I should say so; I should concur; I strongly agree (almost always used ironically or sarcastically).
- sooky60%
(Australia, Newfoundland, New Zealand, slang) Sentimental, sissy; timid.
- scobe60%
Irish slang for someone perceived as a delinquent or anti-social youth — the Dublin equivalent of Britain's 'chav' or Scotland's 'ned.' A scobe is typically associated with tracksuits, aggressive behavior, hanging around in groups, and generally making people feel uneasy. Like chav, it's a loaded term with heavy class undertones — often used dismissively about young working-class people. It's descriptive but carries real social prejudice baggage.