Merriam-Webster labels the noun “vulgar slang” and defines it as “masturbation,” especially “the act or practice of masturbating for a prolonged period of time without orgasm in order to maintain a state of arousal.”
Merriam-Webster defines a gooner as “someone who goons,” a sense it dates to about 2012.
What Merriam-Webster Says ‘Goon’ Means as a Verb
Merriam-Webster’s verb entry for “goon” reads “masturbate,” then narrows it to “especially : to masturbate for a prolonged period of time without orgasm in order to maintain a state of arousal.”
The dictionary dates the first known use to around 2005. Its noun entry shows a revised definition dated Aug. 25, 2026.
Dictionary.com’s slang guide to goon sticks to the older meanings, from a fool to hired muscle, with no entry for the sexual sense.
Gooning vs. Edging and the ‘Goon State’
Gooning builds on edging, stopping just short of orgasm and starting again, which Gayety’s guide to edging covers.
“Gooning is a form of prolonged masturbation,” Jennifer Pollitt of Temple University wrote in an essay for The Conversation. “The goal is not orgasm but staying in a sustained state of arousal for an extended period of time.”
A Reddit moderator who goes by Christfister described the goon state to MEL Magazine in 2020 as “an almost hypnotic, semi-meditative mental state a person can enter after prolonged masturbation.”
Pollitt, who teaches a porn literacy course at Temple, wrote that gooning often involves fast-cut porn across several screens and online communities that chat in real time. “Gooning simply packages old sexual practices inside a radically new digital landscape,” she wrote.
Where the Word Came From: 2005 to Reddit in 2019
Know Your Meme says “gooning” is “derived from ‘goon’ in its slang meaning of ‘stupid person,'” and dates its first online definition to Aug. 18, 2005. That lines up with Merriam-Webster’s “circa 2005.”
Aidan Walker of Know Your Meme wrote in a March 2024 explainer that the community “appears to have been formalized and picked up momentum on Reddit in 2019.”
MEL reported that one gooner it interviewed “discovered gooning on Tumblr, the social media platform on which the community enjoyed rapid growth,” before Tumblr banned porn.
How Gooning Spread as a Meme on TikTok and X
“Starting in June 2021, gooning and goon caves started being referenced in memes on iFunny,” Know Your Meme says. Most people meet the word as a joke, the way plenty of sex slang in Gayety’s guide to gay slang went mainstream.
The site says “memes about gooning and goon caves spread further to TikTok and Twitter in late 2022.” It describes goon caves as “dedicated masturbation rooms with multiple computer screens.”
Walker wrote that “many of these memes are likely making fun of gooners.”
Pollitt wrote that she’d spotted the word on Post-its and in memes before it came up in class. Her students use “to goon” as a verb for masturbating excessively, she wrote.
Daniel Kolitz’s ‘The Goon Squad’ in Harper’s
Psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster wrote in CULTURED that writer Daniel Kolitz “published a viral article that charted the rise of gooning, a radical new form of masturbation.” The feature, “The Goon Squad,” ran in Harper’s November 2025 issue.
“A lot of the porn they’re watching is actively telling them that they’re losers, that they have terrible lives,” Kolitz told Webster.
He told her the scene has another side too. “There is creativity at play in the space,” Kolitz said.
Why ‘Gooner’ Also Means an Arsenal Fan
“As a result of our club being called the Gunners, our fans and players are often referred to as ‘Gooners’,” Arsenal’s official site says.
Merriam-Webster’s “gooner” entry covers only the slang sense, which it labels “vulgar slang.”
Is Gooning Bad for You? What Experts Say
Pollitt wrote that “not all prolonged masturbation is pathological, and gooning illustrates a familiar pattern in sexual subcultures.” Experts don’t agree on how to label heavy porn use.
“Edging and delayed orgasm have been studied for decades in sexology and sexuality studies,” she wrote.
The World Health Organization’s diagnosis manual, ICD-11, lists compulsive sexual behaviour disorder under code 6C72. It describes “a persistent pattern of failure to control intense, repetitive sexual impulses or urges,” one that lasts an extended period, such as six months or more, and causes marked distress or significant impairment in daily life.
ICD-11 says “Distress that is entirely related to moral judgments and disapproval about sexual impulses, urges, or behaviours” isn’t enough for the diagnosis.
The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists says it “does not find sufficient empirical evidence to support the classification of sex addiction” or porn addiction as a mental health disorder.
Pollitt wrote that gooners’ intimacy toward performers “is often one-sided,” and that “content flows toward the user, affirmation is algorithmic, and arousal is engineered, rather than negotiated.”
The WHO’s 6C72 description sets the bar at “a persistent pattern of failure to control” those urges. If gooning is crowding out sleep or work, or it stops feeling like a choice, a licensed therapist who works with sexual health can help sort out what’s going on.
Gooning FAQ
What Does Gooning Mean in Slang?
Merriam-Webster calls it “vulgar slang” for masturbating a long time without orgasm, to stay aroused.
What Is a Gooner?
Merriam-Webster defines a gooner as someone who goons and dates that sense to about 2012. In soccer, “Gooners” are also Arsenal fans.
What Is a Goon Cave?
Know Your Meme calls goon caves “dedicated masturbation rooms with multiple computer screens.” It’s a room set up for gooning.
Is Gooning the Same as Edging?
Pollitt, writing in The Conversation, described gooning as prolonged masturbation aimed at staying aroused. Edging is the technique, and gooning stretches it into hours aimed at a trancelike “goon state.”
