▪ I. pshaw, int. and n.
(pʃɔː, ʃɔː)
Also 8 pshah, sha, 'pshaw, 8–9 psha, 9 p'shaw, (psa, psaw).
[A natural expression of rejection.]
A. int. An exclamation expressing contempt, impatience, or disgust.
| 1673 Wycherley Gentl. Dancing Master iii, Mons. Pshaw! wat do you tell me of the matche! 1710 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 12 Dec., Why, it seems your pacquet-boat is not lost: pshah, how silly that is. 1710 S. Centlivre Bickerstaff's Burying 15 Sha, sha; I tell thee thou art mistaken. 1798 Frere, etc. in Anti-Jacobin No. 31 (1852) 174 'Pshaw! what, ever blundering!—you drive me from my patience. 1814 Sporting Mag. XLIV. 162 P'shaw, exclaims some old sportsman. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. iii. xiv, ‘Pshaw!’ was the peevish ejaculation of Mr. Dare. 1887 J. W. Graham Neæra I. x. 110 Psa! it is excusable in a woman. Ibid. II. v. 168 Psaw! |
B. as n.
| 1712 Steele Spect. No. 438 ¶3 Pishes and Pshaws, or other well-bred Interjections. 1768 Baretti Mann. & Cust. Italy I. 277 To answer me with an angry pshaw. 1840 Hood Kilmansegg, Her precious Leg x, She writh'd with impatience more than pain, And uttered ‘pshaws!’ and ‘pishes!’ 1845 Stoddart Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. I. 179/1 Pish and pshaw..express different shades of contempt, the latter showing more of ill humour and vexation than the former. |
▪ II. pshaw, v.
(pʃɔː, ʃɔː)
[f. prec.]
1. intr. To say ‘pshaw!’ Often with at.
| 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xvii, My father travelled homewards..in none of the best of moods—pshawing and pishing all the way down. 1822 Scott Nigel viii, And why pshaw at my Lord Mayor, sweetheart? a 1864 [see pish v. 1]. 1891 Longm. Mag. Sept. 455 Don't ‘Pshaw!’ at me. |
2. trans. To depreciate or show contempt for by saying ‘pshaw!’
| 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxix. [xxii.], They psha'd the French fleet. 1901 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 247/1 He pshawed his melancholy vapours. |