pouty

comparative poutier · superlative poutiest

1. Tending to pout; angry in a childish or cute way; showing mock anger. (of a person)

   1799, Cassandra Leigh Cook, Battleridge, London: Cawthorn, Volume 1, Chapter 5, p. 77, ‘My dear Doctor,’ said he, ‘this wrathful man thinks you have been unsuccessful, and is primed to be pouty; let us enjoy the pleasure of discovery by a little delay; […] ’

   1 more example

   Long ago when Jade used to come for holiday visits, Margaret found her awkward and pouty, but now that she was grown up, she was pretty and a lot of fun.

   1981, Tony Morrison, Tar Baby, New York: New American Library, published 1983, page 72

   Synonyms: sulky, sullen

2. Shaped into a pout; (of lips) protruding (often implying sulkiness or flirtiness). (of a mouth)

   1851, Donald Grant Mitchell (as Ik. Marvel.), Dream Life, New York: Scribner, Chapter 5, pp. 239-240, Was there ever a baby seen, or even read of, like that baby! […] he is a little pouty about the mouth—but such a mouth!

   2 more examples

   Those girls, who could have been her daughters, were beautiful. […] Their mouths were pouty little cupid’s bows.

   1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 16, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, page 104

   a pale brunette whose pouty Maybelline red lips put Scarlett O’Hara’s sneer to shame

   2016, Paul Beatty, chapter 6, in The Sellout, New York: Picador, page 84

3. Characterized by pouting. (of an action or quality)

   2006, Gary Shteyngart, Absurdistan, London: Granta, 2008, Chapter 27, p. 214, Only their full red lips bore similarity, the father’s bubbly wedges endowing him with a drag queen’s pouty glamour.

   2 more examples

   Where other actresses offer us a sort of pouty boredom which yet seeks to flirt with the audience, Huppert presents severity, anger, and an irritation raised to the condition of nausea.

   2002, Julian Barnes, Something to Declare, London: Picador, page 278

   He suffered on his journey, delivering a pouty soliloquy on hunger, cold, and wild beasts.

   2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, London: Fleet, page 157