Pooh-pooh

//ˌpuːˈpuː// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To dismiss idly with contempt or derision; to diminish. transitive

    "[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!"

  2. 2
    reject with contempt wordnet
  3. 3
    express contempt about wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
admonishbadmouthbazoobelittlebirdblame

Example

More examples

"[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!"

Etymology

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

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.