bah humbug

1. humorousExpressing cynicism, disillusionment or distrustfulness; and specifically a dislike of Christmas and its celebrations and festivities.

   Honor!—bah! humbug! Patriotism!—pshaw! / Are we to be bamboozled by such guys?

   1848 January 22, “Important Official Documents”, in The John-Donkey, volume I, number IV, New York, N.Y.: Published and supplied by George Dexter, Burgess, Stringer & Co., W. H. Graham, R. G. Berford & Co. [et al.], →OCLC, page 126, column 2

   2 more examples

   Only a modern Scrooge could say, "Bah, Humbug," where helping people to get enough to eat is concerned. Well, we are not going to argue that food aid has never filled an empty stomach or saved a dying child—but we will contend, in the case of the United States at least, that it has done so only inadvertently.

   1976, Susan George, “Food Aid? … Or Weapon?”, in How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons for World Hunger, Harmondsworth, London; New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books; reprinted Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1989, page 164

   [O]nce you understand why Bah Humbug is a good term, you will see that it is going to become packed with a biblical position that could warrant every Christian to mindfully say "Bah Humbug" about the Christmas Holiday, and know what it is they are meaning. Bah Humbug is going to work succinctly.

   2012, C. Matthew McMahon, Therese B. McMahon, “Scrooge Had It Right, but for the Wrong Reasons”, in Bah Humbug: How Christians Should Think about the Christmas Holiday, Coconut Creek, Fla.: Puritan Publications, →ISBN, pages 5–6

present singular third person bah humbugs · participle present bah humbugging · participle past bah humbugged · past bah humbugged

1. To utter the words "bah humbug"; to dismiss with the words, or sentiment, of the interjection.

   Once my gear was packed I was eager to go, and get away from Sydney before Christmas found me bah-humbugging my way through a bottle of scotch.

   2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 127

   1 more example

   This can be bah-humbugged or it can be accepted with a child’s quick joy. Who has the right to celebrate, to adore God for his sake, to muse around a manger, to light the candles and give the gifts and sing the songs?

   1961 December 20, The Christian Century, Chicago, page 1515, column 2