Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang A man who seeks out female society, especially for social or professional advancement.
  • noun slang A recently commissioned officer.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Yes poodle-faker – a young man too much given to taking tea with ladies.

    On the Satisfaction of Victorian Profanity gailcarriger 2009

  • But what is fun, is finding the ones that will past muster in printed matter under the eagle eye of my editor, and, it-goes-without-saying, also not lower the tenor of the book – like poodle-faker.

    On the Satisfaction of Victorian Profanity gailcarriger 2009

  • But what is fun, is finding the ones that will past muster in printed matter under the eagle eye of my editor, and, it-goes-without-saying, also not lower the tenor of the book – like poodle-faker.

    On the Satisfaction of Victorian Profanity gailcarriger 2009

  • Yes poodle-faker – a young man too much given to taking tea with ladies.

    On the Satisfaction of Victorian Profanity gailcarriger 2009

  • Blimey a Tommy full of beef, beer and lust could very well on the cot his poodle-faker ways, don a pith helmet and caravan to the land of Chee-chees, musselmen, and wogs.

    Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com 2009

  • November 1991], used in his definition of cicisbeism the word poodle-faker, which, as near as I can make out, is an obscure or archaic Briticism, possibly military slang.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVIII No 3 1991

Comments

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  • Poodle-faker – a young man too much given to taking tea with ladies.

    (Jane, Pembroke)

    October 15, 2008

  • Heaven forbid.

    October 15, 2008

  • Sounds like a great way to meet ladies: "You ladies want to come to my place and sample my hot collection of Darjeelings?"

    October 15, 2008

  • I wonder how poodles come into it.

    October 15, 2008

  • One source I found said that poodle was once a slang term for a woman.

    October 15, 2008

  • It refers either to a "ladies' man" or an effeminate man, "poodle" being used in a derogatory sense as "a person who is obsequiously or unquestioningly willing to follow or obey another; a lackey." OED also says that it once referred to "a young, newly commissioned officer."

    Don't know where poodles picked up the bad name.

    October 15, 2008

  • Hmm. Perhaps something to do with the haircut. It's sad that a hunting breed has basically become a lapdog in the popular imagination.

    October 15, 2008

  • You're right, frindley. They are smart, smart animals.

    October 15, 2008

  • Indeed. But I think they deserve better haircuts.

    October 15, 2008

  • Well, for show only, that haircut is kind of silly. But it does have a purpose. They are hunting dogs and have to get into cold water. The haircut leaves hair as a protection in the areas it's needed: the vital organs (heart/lungs/chest, head/brain) and extremities (paws, ears, tail).

    At least, that's what a dog-person told me once.

    October 15, 2008

  • Interesting! And here I thought they were just the victims of bad haircuts.

    But why cut in the first place, I wonder?

    October 16, 2008

  • I've heard the same theory that c_b outlined.

    Why cut? I think it's something to do with the swimming-when-hunting again. Either their naturally thick, curly coats would become waterlogged and slow them down and/or when wet they wouldn't dry quickly enough and then they'd catch cold. Something along those lines.

    So the solution was to trim most of the coat close to the skin except in those locations where it was essential for keeping the dog warm and healthy.

    October 16, 2008

  • So the poodle part seems cleared up. Why 'faker'?

    October 16, 2008

  • Well, if the intent was to call a young man effeminate (not just someone who likes hanging out with ladies--are there young men who really don't?) or a cotquean, and if "poodle" was a slang, pejorative term for a woman, then it seems like the person in question is faking being a woman.

    Or did you mean, what's the etymology of "faker"?

    October 16, 2008

  • Another source i found specified older women and implied something along the lines of a gigolo.

    October 16, 2008

  • Thanks, frindley. That makes sense.

    I think c_b's interpretation is just about right, at least from what I've read.

    October 16, 2008

  • Fernando poodle-faker.

    October 18, 2008

  • A sweet fang fairy, gangerh.

    October 18, 2008

  • Hah, 'by! Fairy, indeed! Nicely! Well, at least this poodle-faker fairy dropped the osseocarnisanguieoviscericartilaginnervomedullfairy!

    October 18, 2008

  • And again!

    October 19, 2008

  • And again!

    October 19, 2008

  • And again?

    October 19, 2008

  • Again?

    October 19, 2008

  • No?

    October 19, 2008

  • Please.

    October 19, 2008

  • One more.

    October 19, 2008

  • Picked the wrong word, maybe.

    October 19, 2008

  • I said ...

    October 19, 2008

  • fairy

    October 19, 2008

  • Need any help, gangerh?

    October 19, 2008

  • deborking soon?

    October 19, 2008

  • Yes, sionnach, HELP!!

    October 19, 2008

  • It should have worked by now, but there may be a problem with the counting software. If you hit the "most active threads" button, it gives an application error. Though you were able to get other threads up in the listing. I don't understand it.

    on edit: Hooray!

    October 19, 2008

  • Yippee! The fairy strikes again. Another superb waste of time.

    October 19, 2008

  • Just in this month deborking began'>revisiting the conversation that was going on before the deborking began: World Wide Words on poodle-faker.

    '>I don't suppose gangerh might kindly consider some judicious deletions? You know, to make following the thread easier?

    January 25, 2009

  • Yes, gangerh--would you? :-)

    January 26, 2009