boondocks

plural noun

boon·​docks ˈbün-ˌdäks 

1

US, informal : a remote, thinly settled rural area : sticks

Upper Michigan seems both exotic and entirely American, a boondocks with its own special flavor.

—Frank Conroy

—usually used with the

living out in the boondocks

In show business, this trio would have bombed in the boondocks, far from the Broadway lights.

—James Baldwin

2

US, informal, chiefly in military use : rough country filled with dense brush

—usually used with the

The drill is to swim in undetected, get into the boondocks, change to camouflage, and move out for some kind of simulated strike on the base.

—Richard Hill

Did you know?

Boondocks and Boondoggles

Boon (“ a timely benefit; a favor”) is a fairly old English word, dating back to the 12th century. In light of this one might be excused for thinking that words such as boondocks ("a rural area") and boondoggle (“a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft”) are of similar vintage. However, not only are both of these words much newer than boon, they are not related to it (or to each other), except by a coincidence of spelling. Boondoggle is believed to have been coined in the 1920s by the American scoutmaster Robert H. Link as a name for the braided leather cords that are made and worn by Boy Scouts; it took on the “wasteful project” meaning sometime after. Boondocks is also a word from the early 20th century: it comes from the Tagalog word for a mountain, and was brought to English by the U.S. military forces who had occupied the Philippines at the beginning of the 20th century.

Synonyms

• boonies [slang]
• country
• countryside
• nowhere
• sticks

Examples of boondocks in a Sentence

a former city girl who was still adjusting to life in the boondocks

Recent Examples on the Web

Morgan isn’t happy with the change, though Robert makes the best of having to commute daily from the boondocks to Manhattan. —Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Nov. 2022

The experience solidified his hunch that within the next 10 years, the biggest tech companies would come not from Silicon Valley, or even New York or Seattle, but from the boondocks. —Steven Levy, WIRED, 22 Sep. 2022

Our run-down apartment in the boondocks of Houston looked better than the view of the tombstones right outside our dilapidated home on wheels. —Rachel Desantis, Peoplemag, 16 Sep. 2022

There is nothing glamorous about 620 Folsom St., a 99-year-old building in what once was the industrial boondocks of downtown San Francisco. —John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Sep. 2021

There is a unique force in the boondocks of Buenos Aires, Argentina: music producer Bizarrap, a sort of South American Dr. Dre, a hitmaker who has already accustomed its loyal fan base of tens of millions to a weekly smash rap hit. —Javier Hasse, Forbes, 27 May 2021

The group would occasionally hit balls on a few makeshift holes in the boondocks north of Covington, but the experience was less than satisfying and the linksters desired a real course closer to home. —Kim Chatelain | Contributing Writer, NOLA.com, 10 Jan. 2021

Word History

Etymology

Tagalog bundok mountain

First Known Use

circa 1909, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing boondocks

• the boondocks

Kids Definition

boondocks

plural noun

boon·​docks ˈbün-ˌdäks 

1

: rough country filled with dense brush

2

informal : a rural area