Poh
adj, intj, name, noun, slang ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The negative of the base 10 logarithm of the concentration of hydroxide ions, measured in moles per liter.
- 2 Initialism of powered-on hours. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 1 Alternative spelling of po (“diluted”). Singapore, alt-of, alternative, colloquial, not-comparable
- 1 Indicating that something is trivial and not worth consideration. dated
"Oh, poh! they might have been counted some how or other, unless indeed they were so numerous as to require all our people to stand sentinel round them."
- 2 Expressing disagreement or irritation dated
"Lady Anſw[erall]. Colonel, ſome Ladies of your Acquaintance have promis'd to breakfast with you, and I am to wait on them; what will you give us? / Col[onel Atwit]. Why, faith, Madam, Batchelors Fare; Bread and Cheeſe, and Kiſſes. / Lady Anſw. Poh! what have you Batchelors to do with your Money, but to treat the Ladies? you have nothing to keep but your own Four Quarters."
- 3 Expressing disgust or repulsion. dated
"Poh it's disgusting, Mr. Caudle."
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and three other centers found that defects in a gene that's sensitive to hormones can lead to progressive osseous heteroplasia, or POH."
Etymology
From p, denoting negative logarithm, and OH, denoting the hydroxyl radical.
From a dialect word for standard German Pfau (“peacock”), or Hokkien 傅 (Pò͘).
Related phrases
More for "poh"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.