Meanings
alternative Pooh sticks
- gamesA game for two or more players in which each player throws a stick into a river from the upstream side of a bridge crossing it, the winner being the player whose stick emerges first on the other side.
And that was the beginning of the game called Poohsticks, which Pooh invented, and which he and his friends used to play on the edge of the Forest. […] Now one day Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit and Roo were all playing Poohsticks together.
1928 October 11, A[lan] A[lexander] Milne, “In which Pooh Invents a New Game and Eeyore Joins in”, in The House at Pooh Corner, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 94
Origin
From Pooh + sticks, coined by the English author Alan Alexander Milne (1882–1956) in his book The House at Pooh Corner (1928): see the quotation.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Norwegian pinneleken
- pinnelekengame for two or more players in which each player throws a stick into a river from the upstream side of a bridge
Polish misie-patysie, kubusiowe patyczki
- misie-patysiegame for two or more players in which each player throws a stick into a river from the upstream side of a bridge
- kubusiowe patyczkigame for two or more players in which each player throws a stick into a river from the upstream side of a bridge
- prztyczki-patyczkigame for two or more players in which each player throws a stick into a river from the upstream side of a bridge
Russian пустяки́
- пустяки́ (pustjakí)game for two or more players in which each player throws a stick into a river from the upstream side of a bridge
Cite this entry
Poohsticks. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Poohsticks
“Poohsticks.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Poohsticks. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Poohsticks,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Poohsticks.
Source: Poohsticks on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.