blurb

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a promotional statement, as found on the dust jackets of books

   The author got all their friends to write blurbs for the new book.

2. 2
   noun

   A short description of a book, film, or other work, written and used for promotional purposes.

   In a few weeks, blurbs would come back; a few, or many, depending on the book. There were certain writers we knew were always good for a blurb: Louis Untermeyer would always come through — poetry, fiction, humor — whatever, he'd send a well‐turned commendation.

3. 3
   verb

   To write or quote in a blurb.

   When Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald blogged about having seen and loved “The Departed” in Toronto in a supposedly private screening last fall, Warner Brothers “scolded me very strongly,” he said, “but they still blurbed a line from my blog in their opening ad.”

4. 4
   verb

   To supply with a blurb.

   The unseemly business of book blurbing has been source of both humor and concern in the pages of The New Yorker.

Etymology

Coined by American humorist Gelett Burgess in 1907 on a dust jacket at a trade association dinner. The dust jacket said “YES, this is a “BLURB”!” and featured a (fictitious) “Miss Belinda Blurb” shown calling out, described as “in the act of blurbing”.