pooh, int. (v., n.)
(puː, puːh)
Also 7 puh, pue, pow, 7–8 pugh, 8– poo: see poh, poof.
[A ‘vocal gesture’ expressing the action of puffing or blowing anything away. Prob. orig. (pux, puh), whence also the variants pough, pogh, poh, po; and cf. poof.]
A. int. An ejaculation expressing impatience, or contemptuous disdain or disregard for anything. Cf. phew, pho, phoo.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. iii. 101 Affection, puh! You speake like a greene Girle. 1604 Marston & Webster Malcontent i. vi, Pugh!.. Thou speakest like a fool. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 157 Virgil. The Gods graunt them true. Volum. True? pow waw. a 1627 Middleton Quiet Life ii. i, Pue wawe, this is nothing, till I know what he did. 1694 Congreve Double-Dealer i. ii, Pooh, ha, ha, ha, I know you envy me. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xvii. ix, ‘Pugh’, says she, ‘you have pinked a man in a duel, that's all’. 1768 Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) II. 151 Poo! said they, we have no money. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. ii, ‘Pooh, man’, said Tarleton haughtily, ‘none of your compliments’. 1880 ‘Ouida’ Moths II. 378 ‘Pooh’, he said, as he read it, and tore it up. |
B. as n.
1. An utterance of this.
| 1667 Pepys Diary 29 July, With that she made a slighting puh with her mouth. 1817 Byron Beppo vii, A thing which causes many ‘poohs’ and ‘pishes’. 1861 Clayton F. O'Donnell 23 This puffy one always ended his subject with a long ‘pooh’. |
2. slang. Excrement, faeces. Also transf. and fig.; in the pooh = in the shit s.v. shit n. 1 d.
| 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 401/1 Poo.., feces. 1961 ‘J. Danvers’ Living come First x. 177 ‘You're rather in the pooh with the Adelaide police.’ ‘How much do I stink with them?’ 1967 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1303/2 Pooh, anything smelly or disgusting, esp. faeces: Australian juvenile. 1970 R. Beilby No Medals for Aphrodite 229 If they catch you with her, then you're really in the pooh. 1975 X. Herbert Poor Fellow my Country 873 She'll put you in the poo if she writes anything 'bout you. 1976 J. McClure Rogue Eagle ii. 33 ‘But what..if someone..gave him the money and support he needed?’ ‘We might be right in the poo.’ |
Hence pooh v., intr., to utter the exclamation ‘pooh!’; trans., to say ‘pooh!’ to.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Apol. for Watermen Epil., Wks. ii. 267/2 The wrymouth'd Critick..That mewes, and puh's and shakes his brainlesse head. 1798 C. Smith Yng. Philos. I. 44 The Doctor..pshaw'd and pooh'd for some time. 1858 Polson Law & L. 15 ‘Pooh! pooh!’ re-echoed his mother, ‘don't pooh me, John’. |
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Add: pooh v.: (b) intr., to defecate (slang, orig. children's).
| 1980 Times 7 May 19/5 The yellow spots found on local cars..were pollen stains, caused by that darling of the conservationists, the bee, numbers of which had been pooing on the cars. 1982 C. James Flying Visits (1984) 163 The citizens of Munich are..dog-crazy..but have somehow trained their pets not to poo. |