Pooch
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A dog. slang
"My thoughts are disturbed by a man and pooch trying to get off the front of the train. Despite hitting the door button, they refused to open."
- 2 A bulge, an enlarged part. countable, informal
"There's a pooch in the plastic where it got too hot."
- 3 informal terms for dogs wordnet
- 4 A dog of mixed breed; a mongrel.
- 5 The lower belly region; often in reference to the stubborn fat stored in the abdominal area. broadly, countable, informal, uncountable
"See also: paunch"
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- 6 A distended or swelled condition. countable, informal, uncountable
"Her left sleeve has more pooch at the shoulder than the right."
- 1 To distend, to swell or extend beyond normal limits; usually used with out. informal, intransitive
"Inflate that tire too much and the tube may pooch out of the cut in the sidewall."
- 2 round one's lips as if intending to kiss wordnet
Example
More examples"A pooch dubbed "Underdog" was rescued today after it plunged the equivalent of 50 storeys into an open pit diamond mine in South Africa."
Etymology
Of uncertain origin. One (unsubstantiated) conjecture is that the word comes from Putzi, a common German name given to lapdogs. The name Putzi is possibly formed from German Putz + -i, influenced by German putzig (“funny, cute, small”, adjective).
Probably related to pouch.
Related phrases
More for "pooch"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.