Puss
noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A cat. countable, informal, often, term-of-address, uncountable
"Our local theatre is showing Puss in Boots."
- 2 The mouth. slang
"Shut your puss before I shut it for you."
- 3 Alternative spelling of pus. alt-of, alternative, uncountable
"It didn't move as much, and the same teary puss leaked from its eyes."
- 4 informal terms referring to a domestic cat wordnet
- 5 A girl or young woman, or any child. countable, dated, endearing, uncountable
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 The face. slang
"She gave him a slap in the puss."
- 7 obscene terms for female genitals wordnet
- 8 A hare. countable, dated, uncountable
"He then began to beat about, in the ſame Language, and in the ſame Manner, as if he had been beating for a Hare, and at laſt cried out, 'Soho! Puſs is not far off. Here's her Form, upon my Soul; I believe I may cry ſtole away.'"
- 9 The vulva (female genitalia). countable, slang, uncountable, vulgar
- 10 Sex with a woman. metonymically, slang, uncountable, vulgar
"So don't know! So, what are you gonna do? Sell your birthright for a little bit of puss?"
- 11 A coward; a wuss; someone who is unable to stand up for themselves. Canada, US, countable, slang, uncountable, vulgar
Example
More examples"Some men are born to good luck: all they do or try to do comes right—all that falls to them is so much gain—all their geese are swans—all their cards are trumps—toss them which way you will, they will always, like poor puss, alight upon their legs, and only move on so much the faster."
Etymology
Probably from Middle Low German pūse, pūskatte or Dutch poes (“puss, cat”, also slang for “vulva”), ultimately from a common Germanic word for cat, perhaps ultimately imitative of a sound made to get its attention (compare Arabic بسة (bissa)). Akin to West Frisian poes, Low German Puus, Puuskatte, Danish pus, dialectal Swedish kattepus, Norwegian pus. Found also in several other European, North African and Asian languages; compare Romanian pisică, Persian پیشی (piši), Tamil பூசை (pūcai), Tagalog pusa and Sardinian pisittu.
Of Celtic origin, from or akin to Irish pus (“mouth, lip”), from Middle Irish bus. Compare also Middle Low German pussen (“to kiss”), Middle High German bussen (“to kiss”).
Related phrases
More for "puss"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.