moxie

noun

mox·ie ˈmäk-sē

Synonyms of moxie next

: energy, pep

woke up full of moxie

: courage, determination

it takes … moxie to pull up roots and go to a land where the culture and probably the language are totally foreign—

M. J. McClary

: know-how

was impressed with his musical moxie and hired him as a solo

Did you know?

If the idea of a carbonated bevvy flavored with gentian root makes you thirsty to wet your whistle, then you’ve got some moxie, friend! Lowercase moxie—which today is a synonym of both nerve and verve—originated as uppercase Moxie, as in Moxie Nerve Food, a patent medicine and tonic invented by Dr. Augustin Thompson and sold in New England in the 1870s. Within a decade, when it was clear his drink wasn’t really medicinal, he carbonated Moxie and marketed it as a kind of 19th-century energy drink with a “delicious blend of the bitter and the sweet.” The soft drink and its advertising slogans (among them Make Mine Moxie!) eventually caught on around the country. The beverage was even a favorite of Charlotte’s Web author E. B. White, who wrote, “Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life.” The semantic jump from “a drink that gives you energy” to “energy” itself is as natural as a good advertising campaign. By 1930, moxie had acquired its earliest modern sense referring to vim and pep.

Examples of moxie in a Sentence

He showed a lot of moxie in questioning the policy. it was old-fashioned military moxie that got medical supplies to the disaster site in record time

Recent Examples on the Web

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All of it was evidence that the quarterback has the requisite moxie to meet game-defining moments in the fourth quarter. —

Dan Wiederer, Chicago Tribune, 31 Oct. 2024 After the win, McBride described the moxie the Lynx own. —

David Close, CNN, 18 Oct. 2024 Bote, of course, had been monitoring these calls, decided he was impressed by Zoe’s moxie, and took her under his wing. —

Sarene Leeds, Vulture, 26 Sep. 2024 Her strong opinions, deep experience and strategic moxie helped drive policy in the nation’s second-largest school system during her board service in the 1980s and since her return in 2019. —

Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for moxie