Dictionary

pooh-pooh en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈpuˈpu/ (General-American)
• /ˌpuːˈpuː/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From a reduplication of pooh (“an utterance of the word pooh”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To dismiss idly with contempt or derision; to diminish.
   • Mr Macey, though he joined in the defence of Marner against all suspicions of deceit, also pooh-poohed the tinder-box; indeed, repudiated it as a rather impious suggestion, tending to imply that everything must be done by human hands, and that there was no power which could make away with the guineas without moving the bricks. 1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter VIII, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I, page 119:
   • if there's one thing I've learnt from being in the army, it's never ignore a pooh-pooh. I knew a Major got pooh-poohed, made the mistake of ignoring the pooh-pooh. He pooh-poohed it! Fatal error! 'Cos it turned out all along that the soldier who pooh-poohed him had been pooh-poohing a lot of other officers, who pooh-poohed their pooh-poohs. In the end we had to disband the regiment. Morale totally destroyed, by pooh-pooh! 1989, Blackadder Goes Forth:
   • Pooh-poohing the IPCC's science has been one line of attack by [George W.] Bush's backers. 2001 June 21, Murray Sayle, “After George W. Bush, the deluge”, in London Review of Books, volume 23, number 12, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2016, pages 3–9:
   • [Bill] Clinton haters will pooh-pooh all of these acknowledgements as the index of a compulsive sociability that knows no limits and upholds no standards, a psychic necessity we should not make into a moral virtue. 2004 September 23, David Simpson, “The kid who talked too much and became President”, in London Review of Books, volume 26, number 18, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2016, pages 3–5:
   • In England, until very late days, we have been accustomed rather to pooh-pooh national Orders, to vote ribbons and crosses tinsel gewgaws, foolish foreign ornaments, and so forth. c. 1861, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “On Ribbons”, in Roundabout Papers, London: Smith, Elder & Co., published 1863, →OCLC:
   • [W]hen he went abroad with Dombey and was chasing that vagabond up and down France, J. Bagstock would have pooh-pooh'd you—would have pooh-pooh'd you, Sir, by the Lord! 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, chapter 58, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 578:

Forms

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