pompadour

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UK/ˈpɒmpədʊə/UK/ˈpɒmpədɔː/US/ˈpɑːmpədɔːɹ/

noun

A women's hairstyle in which the hair is swept upwards from the face and worn high over the forehead.

UncommonScrabble 16

Meanings

nounpompadour (plural pompadours)

plural pompadours · alternative nonstandard pompador

  1. A women's hairstyle in which the hair is swept upwards from the face and worn high over the forehead.
  2. A men's hairstyle of the 1950s.

    The Donald's strange pompadour and Hillary's strange server have eclipsed all the usual primary permutations.

    2015 August 22, Maureen Dowd, “Donald Trump Struts in His Own Pageant”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 22 Aug 2015
    1 more example

    Squat and perspiring, with a low pompadour and a thin black mustache, he was inevitably disheveled by evening.

    2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 17

    Synonyms: do, ducktail, quiff

  3. A crimson or pink colour.

    […] head, neck, and whole under parts fine but very deep crimson or pompadour-colour […]

    1812, George Shaw, James Francis Stephens, General Zoology: pt. 1. Aves, page 409
  4. A corsage with low square neck.
  5. A pattern for silk, with leaves and flowers in pink, blue, and gold.
  6. UKhistoricalslanggovernmentA member of the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot, an infantry regiment in the British Army, active from 1755 to 1881.
verbpompadour (third-person singular simple present pompadours, present participle pompadouring, simple past and past participle pompadoured)

present singular third person pompadours · participle present pompadouring · participle past pompadoured · past pompadoured · alternative nonstandard pompador

  1. To style hair into a pompadour

    1976-1977, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure I parted my hair back and smoothed it instead of pompadouring it.

    1 more example

    But by mid-afternoon we had both grown tired of putting on and taking off the clothes my mother and Beata had made for Lillian Russell, and of taking down and pompadouring again the wig Beata had turned backside front so it should be long where ladies' hair was supposed to be long.

    1944, Skulda V. Banér, Latchstring Out, page 33

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA men's hairstyle of the 1950s.

Origin

  1. FrenchPompadour
  2. Englishpompadour

From French Pompadour, after Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), mistress of Louis XV.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French banane
  • bananewoman's hairstyle
Cite this entry
APA

pompadour. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pompadour

MLA

“pompadour.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pompadour. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pompadour,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pompadour.

Source: pompadour on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.