pooh-bah

noun

ˈpü-ˌbä

-ˌbȯ

variants or less commonly poo-bah

often capitalized P&B

Synonyms of pooh-bah next

: a person holding many public or private offices

: a person in high position or of great influence

Did you know?

The original Pooh-Bah was an arrogant, buffoonish bureaucrat introduced in the 1885 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado. In that show, the character Pooh-Bah, whose title is "Lord High Everything Else," very "humbly" agrees to accept several important government offices (and their salaries) after a series of officials resign. He'll do anything if the bribe is big enough, and he loves to strut and show off to anyone who might be impressed by his grandeur. It didn't take English speakers long to adopt pooh-bah as a term for someone who holds either many offices or a high position, and the word still often carries a suggestion of pompousness.

Examples of pooh-bah in a Sentence

an annual clambake that attracts political pooh-bahs from around the state

Recent Examples on the Web

These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

This kind of surgical enhancement can still be frowned upon in the restoration world, decried as fakery by the pooh-bahs of all-original-everything. —

Lawrence Ulrich, Robb Report, 13 July 2024 To Richardson-Merrell’s pooh-bahs, her scrutiny seemed like the dilatory work of someone who didn’t know how the game was played. —

Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024 Like Joe Rogan, the carnivorous pooh-bah of this intellectual space, Brand appeared interested in teaching a certain kind of man how to be a certain kind of man, mining the tension between think-for-yourself riffs and listen-to-me conclusions. —

Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times, 13 Nov. 2023 But the pooh-bahs in Brussels didn’t exactly rush to say yes. —

Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 25 Oct. 2023