Meaning of pooh-pooh | Babel Free

Definitions

To dismiss idly with contempt or derision; to diminish.

transitive

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!”

“In England, until very late days, we have⟳ been accustomed rather to pooh-pooh national Orders, to vote⟳ ribbons and crosses tinsel gewgaws, foolish foreign ornaments, and so forth.”

“Mr Macey, though he joined in the defence of Marner against all suspicions of deceit, also pooh-poohed the tinder-box; indeed, repudiated it as a rather impious suggestion, tending to imply that everything must be done by human hands, and that there was no power which could make⟳ away with the guineas without moving the bricks.”

“Pooh-poohing the IPCC's science has been one line of attack by [George W.] Bush's backers.”

“[Bill] Clinton haters will pooh-pooh all of these acknowledgements as the index of a compulsive sociability that knows no limits and upholds no standards, a psychic necessity we should not make⟳ into a moral virtue.”

CEFR level