Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. Alternative form of poobah.
Etymologies
- From Pooh-Bah, a comic character in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Mikado (1885). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“It didn't matter if you were President George H.W. Bush or Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor and pooh-bah of insider journalism, who was always publicly proclaiming his tough-guy desire to "give my left nut" for one story after another 'How many of those can one guy have to give?”
“Kentucky planter and pooh-bah James Taylor a cousin of President Zachary Taylor, onboard an Ohio River steamboat, "spoke at extraordinary length and spat all the time like a sprinkling can.”
“You have the feeling the words are dictated by some party pooh-bah who believes the speech will fail if it does not touch all the issues on every strategist's list.”
“Later, Carter describes O'Brien as appearing "so drawn," and "so stony-blank" that NBC pooh-bah Jeff Zucker "thought he looked catatonic.”
The Washington Post: Pick of the day: The ballad of Jay and Conan
“I'd have to kill myself after we talked, so I think I'll pass," one Washington pooh-bah and logical invitee says.”
The Washington Post: Chelsea Clinton's wedding: A very inviting proposition? Not for some VIPs.
“I debated a Tea Party pooh-bah on LA's NPR station KPCC yesterday.”
“Think Bob Dole - numbingly boring presidential candidate, but wry, witty and downright punchy when the cameras were turned off during his disastrous 1996 campaign and later when he was freed to be himself as a wisecracking Senate pooh-bah.”
“Look at a photo of the latest pooh-bah conference -- the hausfrau Merkel, the big glum Scotsman, that goofball Berlusconi, Putin with his B-movie bad-boy scowl, and Sarkozy, who looks like a district manager for Avis -- you put Barack in that bunch and he will shine.”
“The pooh-bah personage mucked up the administration of the oath of office.”
“What would we do without you, oh grand pooh-bah of the graphic novel?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pooh-bah’.
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probablyankita's list
Words are all I have to take your heart away
apartheid, techno-klutz, logorrheic, gordian knot, anodyne, odor of sanctity, finders keepers, foot-in-mouth dis..., dutch uncle, masquerade, smoke signals, furtive glance and 320 more...
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bilby's Words
pandemic, whirl, guffaw, ethereal, feisty, dunt, ephemeral, pule, flipergebet, prink, maunder, gammon and 1023 more...
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Words to Try to Use in Colloquial Spe...
surquedry, equivocate, putative, turgid, congeries, irrefragable, quiddity, zaftig, flagitious, bloviate, perfidy, compendious and 227 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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King Gilbert I of Savoy
The great W.S. Gilbert was librettist in the famous Gilbert & Sullivan collaboration, producing fourteen operas altogether. They are rich in wonderful Victorian words and usages and very clever rhy...
emollient, escutcheon, supercilious, physiognomy, overbearing, semi-despondent, trousseau, burglary, protuberant, rataplan, indenture, gyrate and 70 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pooh-bah.
reesetee I lurve The Mikado. Sep 3, 2008
bilby "POOH: It is consequently my degrading duty to serve this upstart as First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice, Commander-in-Chief, Lord High Admiral, Master of the Buckhounds, Groom of the Back Stairs, Archbishop of Titipu, and Lord Mayor, both acting and elect, all rolled into one. And at a salary! A Pooh-Bah paid for his services! I a salaried minion! But I do it! It revolts me, but I do it!"
- Gilbert & Sullivan, 'The Mikado'.
Sep 3, 2008