Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To express contempt for or impatience about; make light of.
from The Century Dictionary.
- An exclamation indicating contempt.
- To turn aside from with a “Pooh”; express dislike, scorn, or contempt for; sneer at.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb colloq. To make light of; to treat with derision or contempt
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
dismiss idly, withderision orcontempt .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb reject with contempt
- verb express contempt about
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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But, don't expect him to pooh-pooh that program: Many of its recipients are from middle and upper-income families.
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The failure-to-be-frank over Goldsmith's departure was far from the most important thing the mayor has tried to pooh-pooh off the front pages.
Dan Collins: Mayor Bloomberg's Handling of Stephen Goldsmith Firing Not the Problem Dan Collins 2011
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Should an investigation (a transparent one, mind you) reveal the hollow-hearted evil that too many assume true to just pooh-pooh, the retribution would not just be directed at a relatively well-protected him, but at the less-protected average U.S. citizen daring to move about the world.
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Any native Detroiter will echo Motor City Mayor Dave Bing, who took to Twitter this month to pooh-pooh a public suggestion that Detroit build a statue to the city's cybernetic policeman.
Galleries: 'Heirlooms' at Transformer; 'Bound' at Hamiltonian 2011
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It pisses me off when people simply pooh-pooh the idea of the Bush administration somehow being involved with 9/11.
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Should an investigation (a transparent one, mind you) reveal the hollow-hearted evil that too many assume true to just pooh-pooh, the retribution would not just be directed at a relatively well-protected him, but at the less-protected average U.S. citizen daring to move about the world.
Archive 2009-09-01 2009
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"Don't pooh-pooh the fact that I didn't have the power to claw it back," he said.
'Pay Czar' Concedes: If Wall St. Pay Breaks Records, Then 'Our Work Has Not Been Successful' The Huffington Post News Team 2010
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"I'm sure some designers would pooh-pooh and say, 'how provincial,' but I loved it."
Fashion Weeks Gone Wild, From Aruba to Karachi Christina Binkley 2011
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On the other hand, some market pros pooh-pooh any October fears, noting that the market is on a roll, what with the Dow -- largely reflecting expectations of a zippier economy -- having ballooned more than 700 points since late July.
Dan Dorfman: More Than Those Autumn Leaves Could Fall Dan Dorfman 2010
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Berlioz was quite right to pooh-pooh the story that appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848 when he was conducting opera at Drury Lane: that as he left the Odéon theatre in Paris in 1827 after seeing Charles Kemble and Harriet Smithson in Romeo and Juliet he exclaimed: "I shall marry that woman and write my grandest symphony on the play."
yarb commented on the word pooh-pooh
He had unfortunately made light of it and pooh-poohed the ailment...
- Samuel Butler, Erewhon
July 19, 2008