piss

plural pisses

1. mildlyuncountableusuallyvulgarUrine.First known use 14th c.

   This toilet is disgusting. There's piss all over the floor.

   4 more examples

   [among the list of elixir ingredients][…]Of piss and egg-shells

   1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page), scene II

   Monster, I do smell all horse-piss; at which my nose is in great indignation.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

   Smells of men. Spat-on sawdust, sweetish warmish cigarettesmoke, reek of plug, spilt beer, men’s beery piss, the stale of ferment.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 8

   There in a puddle of piss sat Princess Fatima, her dress up over her knees, vomit dripping onto her bodice

   2005, Richard Connelly Miller, Tanglefoot

2. countablemildlyvulgarThe act of urinating.First known use 19th c.

   I'm desperate for a piss!

   1 more example

   But the urinal was safe, no unshielded pissing trough, but a nice, modest urinal, with a wall on each side of you so you could have your privacy. … That was one of the best pisses of my life.

   1999, Tin House #2 (→ISBN, Win McCormack, Rob Spillman, Elissa Schappell), page 170

3. countablemildlyuncountablevulgarAlcoholic beverage, especially of inferior quality.First known use 20th c.

   Let's dash over to Fisher's for a fifth of that one-fifty-one West Indian. We can't drink this piss, it's degrading.

   1974, Donald Newlove, The Drunks, →ISBN, page 33

   1 more example

   ‘Want some advice?’ I said. ‘Stay off the piss. You won't want to be handling this kind of thing with a hangover.’

   1985, Helen Garner, Yellow Notebook: Diaries 1978-1987, Text Publishing, published 2022, page 140

4. attributivecountablemildlyuncountablevulgarAn intensifier.

   piss-poor

   3 more examples

   Irene went down to her studio and brought the painting upstairs. She leaned it against a wall and then she and Mary contemplated it from across the room. 'It really is piss-ugly,' said Mary with a note of grudging affection in her voice.

   1989, Kate Pullinger, When the monster dies, Jonathan Cape

   “You are piss funny, Caolan O'Donnell, you really are.”

   2007, C. N. Barton, The Cambridge Diaries: A Tale of Friendship, Love and Economics, Janus Publishing Company Lim, →ISBN, page 417

   Just watched Black Adder Goes Forth. Can I just say Ben Elton is my bloody hero for ever. If it wasn't for him I would still think voting Tory was OK. And he is piss funny ...

   2016, Rae Earl, My Mad Fat Diary: A Memoir, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 267

present singular third person pisses · participle present pissing · participle past pissed · past pissed

1. intransitivemildlyvulgarTo urinate.

   When I got home I found a drunk pissing in my doorway.

   5 more examples

   O Jove, a beastly fault! And then another fault in the semblance of a fowl; think on ’t, Jove; a foul fault! When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i’ the forest. Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? Who comes here? my doe?

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]

   Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 14:10

   Along by the edge of the mole he lolloped, dawdled, smelt a rock and from under a cocked hindleg pissed against it. He trotted forward and, lifting again his hindleg, pissed quick short at an unsmelt rock.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 3

   Roy: The work was fiiine. There was nothing wrong with the work. But they caught him... He pissed in the sink. / Jen: Oh. Oh! / Roy: Yeah... / Jen: Which sink? / Roy: All the sinks. Yeah, he basically went on a pee parade around the house. / Jen: Oh God, I have to fire him.

   2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1

   Gather your friends and your family / So they can watch me spit and piss on your grave / Forgiveness is useless / It's just another form of weakness

   2019, “Forgiveness Is Weakness”, in Phil Bozeman (lyrics), The Valley (Deathcore), performed by Whitechapel

2. mildlytransitivevulgarTo discharge as or with the urine.

   If you're pissing blood, you'd better see a doctor.

   1 more example

   If any piss filthy matter, or little scales, or withal the urine have a strong smell, it shews ulceration of the bladder.

   1824, Alexander Burnett, The Medical Adviser, →OCLC, page 71

3. CommonwealthIrelandUKmildlyslangtransitivevulgarTo achieve easily.

   "I'll piss this," I thought. "There's only Gary to beat and I beat him easily in both heats."

   2018, Carl Fogarty, The World According to Foggy, Hachette UK, →ISBN

4. ambitransitivemildlyslangvulgarTo rain heavily.

   Let's face it, they're there for a good stroll on a Sunday afternoon when it's pissing outside.

   2002, Will Self, Feeding Frenzy, Penguin UK, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   She spent that night under her sheet of polythene and 'somehow managed to get only half wet', waking up the next morning to find that 'it had absolutely pissed down through the night'.

   1989, Christine Dann, Pip Lynch, Wilderness Women: Stories of New Zealand Women at Home in the Wilderness

   Normally she would have left the car at home and walked to the hotel but it was pissing rain and she didn't want to meet Jeff looking like a drowned rat.

   2013, Patricia Scanlan, With All My Love: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 102

1. mildlyvulgarExpresses anger, disappointment or dissatisfaction.

   Well, piss! I can't leave here now. Billy, call into the room and ask one of the girls to ask the Doc if he can guess how much longer it will be.

   2022, Terry McGuin, The Dracula Shark, page 179

   3 more examples

   At times he gets irritable, especially if he believes that something has been misplaced or lost: "Piss oh piss! -- where in the hell does everything go around here!"

   1967, Walter Otto Weyrauch, The Law of a Small Group: A Report on the Berkeley Penthouse Experiments with Emphasis on Penthouse V. Parts I and II

   There was nothing left of the sundae except a puddle of white foam muddied by chocolate syrup, with a cherry floating on top. "Oh, piss," she muttered, "the ice cream's melted."

   1992, Sandra Brown, Three Complete Novels, Wings, →ISBN

   Fowler was unresponsive when emergency services arrived and was declared dead at the scene. Fowler worked for the mayor's office for the past three years and twice ran unsuccessfully for city council. Police are asking anyone who saw a green Toyota or Honda SUV near the scene of the accident to contact them.' 'Piss!' Melchiori said again. 'He was a friend of mine.'

   2014, Michael Wiley, Blue Avenue: First in a noir mystery series set in Jacksonville, Florida, Severn House Publishers Ltd, →ISBN