blurb

[ blurb ]

noun

1. a brief advertisement or announcement, especially a laudatory one:

   She wrote a good blurb for her friend's novel.

verb (used with object)

1. to advertise or praise in the manner of a blurb.

blurb

/ blɜːb /

noun

1. a promotional description, as found on the jackets of books

Other Words From

• blurbist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of blurb¹

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15; allegedly coined by F. G. Burgess

Word History and Origins

Origin of blurb¹

C20: coined by Gelett Burgess (1866–1951), US humorist and illustrator

Example Sentences

One of the many enthusiastic blurbs describes it as “gut-wrenchingly funny.”

From Washington Post

For a novice thriller writer, Abrams plucked blurbs from nine heavy-hitters, a literary baseball starting lineup, including Nora Roberts, Scott Turow, Lee Child and Michael Connelly.

From Washington Post

I get the sense that we’re looking at a list of magazine blurbs.

From Eater

In other words, a good answer might well be found in a single passage or paragraph in an otherwise broad topic document, or random blurb page without much focus at all.

From Search Engine Land

A blurb could look something like “The Trail Runner XT allows you to comfortably walk 20-25 miles a day as you trek through the beautiful landscape of the Appalachian trail”.

From Search Engine Watch

Even the patron saint of teenage girls, Judy Blume, is featured on the back cover with a blurb for the book.

From The Daily Beast

I first read the book in galleys some months ago; the finished edition carries a blurb from me on the back cover.

From The Daily Beast

He helped John McMillian and me get our first book contract, for The Radical Reader, and then wrote a generous blurb.

From The Daily Beast

Shteyngart sat down with The Daily Beast to discuss the book, the art of the blurb, and, yes, teaching James Franco.

From The Daily Beast

He shares his secret formula for writing a good blurb–and his selfish motive for blurbing so frequently.

From The Daily Beast

Front matter consisting of a blurb and a list of other publications by the author has been moved to the end of the text.

From Project Gutenberg

It—it's just the sort of thing we call a 'blurb,' Miss West!

From Project Gutenberg

Matson read that blurb in an official press release and laughed cynically.

From Project Gutenberg

Herman had the wild thought that they were blurb writers whose jobs had gone to their heads.

From Project Gutenberg

Modern Library blurb: "mail complete list of titles" left as is.

From Project Gutenberg