pooh

alternative poo · alternative puh · alternative poogh · alternative pugh

1. Expressing dismissal, contempt, impatience, etc.

   Pooh, ha, ha, ha, I know you envy me.

   1694, William Congreve, Double-Dealer, I, i, 2

   2 more examples

   I am carelesse what the fustie World speakes of me, puh.

   1600, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humor, iii, i, sig. iii

   ‘Pooh, just a simple trick of skipping two hours ahead of the clock, so that people can’t see what’s happening now because it hasn’t happened yet.’

   1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 11

   Synonyms: pht

2. Expressing disgust at an unpleasant smell.

   Pooh!... How you smell of tobacco.

   1859, S.S. Steele, Conjugal Lesson, page 182

   Synonyms: bleah

3. alternativeeuphemisticAlternative form of poo: a minced oath for 'shit'.

   Mom offers everybody fudge and says ‘Oh, pooh!’ when she gets upset.

   1992 July 22, Time, page 55

plural poohs · alternative poo · alternative puh · alternative poogh · alternative pugh

1. countableAn instance of saying "pooh".

   A thing which causes many ‘poohs’ and ‘pishes’.

   1818, Lord Byron, Beppo, canto vii, l. 4

   1 more example

   She […] hath ſtiled him with an immortall penne, the bawewawe of ſchollars, the tutt of gentlemen, the tee-heegh of gentlewomen, the phy of citizens, the blurt of Courtiers, the poogh of good letters, the faph of good manners, and the whoop-hooe of good boyes in London ſtreetes.

   1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey], Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, →OCLC; republished as John Payne Collier, editor, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. […] (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I; no. 8), [London]: [s.n.], [1870], →OCLC, page 181

2. alternativechildishuncountableAlternative form of poo: feces.

   ‘You're rather in the pooh with the Adelaide police.’ ‘How much do I stink with them?’

   1961, Camille Auguste Marie Caseleyr, The Living Come First, page 177

3. UKalternativechildishcountableAlternative form of poo: A piece of feces; an act of defecation.

present singular third person poohs · participle present poohing · participle past poohed · past poohed · alternative poo · alternative puh · alternative poogh · alternative pugh

1. intransitiveTo say "pooh".

   The Doctor... pshaw'd and pooh'd for some time.

   1798, Charlotte Smith, The Young Philosopher, volume I, page 44

   1 more example

   The wrimouth'd Crittick... That mewes, and puh's and shakes his brainelesse head...

   1614, The Nipping or Snipping of Abuses, John Taylor, L4

2. transitiveTo say "pooh" to.

   ‘Pooh! pooh!’ re-echoed his mother, ‘don't pooh me, John.’

   1858, Archer Polson, Law & Lawyers, page 15

3. alternativechildishintransitiveAlternative form of poo: To defecate or dirty something with feces.

   My cat poohed in here.

   1989 April 1, Crisis, page 19

   1 more example

   We all know what happened to them—they... poohed their pants.

   2003 March 13, The Sun

1. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Winnie the Pooh.