Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A cat.
  • noun A girl or young woman. Often used as a term of endearment.
  • noun Offensive Slang A man regarded as weak, timid, or unmanly.
  • noun The mouth.
  • noun The human face.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cat; a pussy or pussy-cat.
  • noun A hare or rabbit.
  • noun A puss-moth.
  • noun A pet name for a child or young woman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A cat; -- a fondling appellation.
  • noun A hare; -- so called by sportsmen.
  • noun a game in which all the players but one occupy corners of a room, or certain goals in the open air, and exchange places, the one without a corner endeavoring to get a corner while it is vacant, leaving some other without one.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of stout bombycid moths belonging to Cerura, Harpyia, and allied genera, esp. Harpyia vinuli, of Europe. The larvæ are humpbacked, and have two caudal appendages.

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

  • noun informal A cat.
  • noun A girl or young woman.
  • noun dated, hunting A hare.
  • noun slang pussy; vagina
  • noun slang The mouth.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun obscene terms for female genitals
  • noun informal terms referring to a domestic cat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Akin to Dutch poes and Middle Low German pūse, cat, probably ultimately imitative of calls used to attract cats .]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Irish Gaelic pus, mouth, from Middle Irish bus, lip.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a Common Germanic word for cat. Akin to Dutch poes "puss, cat", Low German puus-katte, dialectal Swedish kattepus, Norwegian pus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Of Celtic origin, from or akin to Irish pus ("mouth, lip"), from Middle Irish bus.

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Examples

  • Pouty-mouth glamour puss is the favored female photo pose.

    Boing Boing: August 28, 2005 - September 3, 2005 Archives 2005

  • A gooey mass of blood, byle and puss is not a baby you morons.

    Think Progress » Why Krauthammer Doesn’t Get It 2005

  • All you spainy-cat fans, my own puss is also a maine-coon mix; they're a personable breed -- smart and friendly, and absolutely beautiful (as you all well know).

    HP rides again 2004

  • I possess the odd cat-themed coffee mug and the stray back cat book mark, but you won't come to my home and spot any porcelain puss trinkets, Hello Kitty miscellany or Lilian Jackson Braun books.

    For I will consider my Cat Spainy, For she is the servant of the Living God... moriarty6 2004

  • It was something to affect that most people are wimps (he said the word puss with a y) and need guns to feel strong.

    LJWorld.com stories: News 2009

  • "Her name was Sarah, so my husband always called puss the Sarah-cat," explained Aunt Jamesina.

    Anne of the Island 1908

  • "Say, coot, lad, coot; don't chop your words short; sounds as if you were calling puss wi 'your cat."

    The Weathercock Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias George Manville Fenn 1870

  • But this was also a book where "puss" leaks from one character's eyes, so maybe I shouldn't snatch at hopes that the copy-editing will improve.

    Don't knock it shunn 2008

  • But this was also a book where "puss" leaks from one character's eyes, so maybe I shouldn't snatch at hopes that the copy-editing will improve.

    Don't knock it shunn 2008

  • The page titled "Nice puss/bad foot" is devoted to the photo of a nude woman laying down on a table, her foot has been blown off by a land mine, blood, muscle, skin and bone are dangling in its place, and her naked crotch is clearly visible in the photo (thus the reference to "puss").

    09/26/2005 2005

Comments

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  • "'And what the hell do you think I'm going to get for that?' Faxy would snarl, the smile withering from his puss."

    - Frank O'Connor, 'The Miser'.

    September 6, 2008