Dictionary

Winnie-the-Poohish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio

Etymology

From Winnie-the-Pooh + -ish.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of the children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) by English author A. A. Milne.
   • But during the Christmas holidays will be revived, for matinees, the children’s play, “Toad of Toad Hall,” which A. A. Milne based on Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows.” It is very whimsical and Winnie-the-Poohish and altogether Milnesome. 1932 December 1, Philip Page, “Plays That Even Fine Acting Cannot Save: Irene Vanbrugh Returning to the Stage in an Edna Ferber Story”, in Evening Standard, number 33,787, London, page 9, column 1:
   • Trod and trodden sound vaguely Winnie-the-Poohish to American ears, because Americans seldom use the verb to tread: […] 1999, Steven Pinker, Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, Basic Books, →ISBN:
   • These included Masefield, St. John Ervine (a second play by him helped them recover the losses of three flops in a row), Shaw, and A. A. Milne, whose Mr. Pim Passes By, a mild, domestic, Winnie-the-Poohish comedy done early in 1921, set them solidly in their bank’s good books. 1974, Jay Williams, Stage Left, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →ISBN, pages 11–12:
2. Resembling or characteristic of the fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh from the aforementioned book.
   • We were feeling awfully foolish and Winnie-the-Poohish and in a moment of carefree abandon we fell upon some fan magazines on the boat and started hunting for pictures of ourselves. 1931 November, Elizabeth Wilson, “The Trans-Continental Wife”, in Silver Screen, volume two, number one, page 70, column 3:
   • My life is very simple, sort of Winnie-the-Poohish. 1969 August 1, Margaret McKee, “‘Why Have A Painting Unless You Can Read It?’”, in Memphis Press-Scimitar, 89th year, number 234, Memphis, Tenn., section “Showtime”, page 8, column 3:
   • In a distinctly Winnie-the-Poohish way, I began to wonder if striding over Ashdown Forest on a blustery October day was really such a good idea. 2000, Yvonne Jeffery Hope, “A. A. Milne: Winnie-the-Pooh in Ashdown Forest”, in Victoria Brooks, editor, Literary Trips: Following in the Footsteps of Fame, Greatest Escapes Publishing, published 2002, →ISBN, section 5 (Great Britain and Ireland), page 281:

Forms