Psst

//psːː(t)// intj, verb, slang

intj, verb, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To say psst, to get someone's attention or to communicate with them. informal

    "and I was just rounding the fourth-floor landing when Claudia pssted at me"

Intj
  1. 1
    Implies that the speaker is sending secret or whispered information to another person. onomatopoeic

    "Psst, John, don’t tell anyone, but I’ve got lots of candy stashed away."

Example

More examples

""Psst! Mary! Can I borrow a sheet of notebook paper?" Tom tapped Mary's shoulder with his pencil's eraser. "Do you intend to write on it?" Mary asked Tom in a deadpan tone. "Yeah." "Then I don't want it back." Mary handed Tom a sheet of notebook paper."

Etymology

Imitative. First attested in the 1920s.

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