puss n.2
1. the mouth.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Amer. Dict. Sl. 213: Puss (P[rize] R[ing]), the mouth. | |
| Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 30: The copper hit him a rap in the puss. | |
| God’s Man 377: I’ll give you a poke in the puss if You pull any more cracks like that. | |
| (con. 1917) Mattock 232: Just one smack in the puss, and he’ll talk! | |
| Call It Sleep (1977) 288: He ga’ me a smack onna puss, lousy bassid! | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Tailor and Ansty 42: Then they would dance to ‘puss-music’, music made by the mouth alone, without any instruments. [Ibid.] 50: What for? Why, for no reason at all beyond the exercising of his own ingenuity. Things like that were like daisies in a bull’s puss to him. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Scarperer (1966) 121: Get your puss buttoned up. | |
| Cinderella Liberty 20: I saw him with a pussful of paella. | |
| Snapper 179: An’ the little puss on his, yeh know. | |
| Panopticon (2013) 89: D’ye want a smack in the pus? | |
| Rough Trade [ebook] Junior raised his hand up once more [...] Thankfully for Byron, it wasn’t lowered into his puss. |
2. a face.
| White-Headed Boy 40: Say I’m the besht man, or I’ll break your puss [EDD]. | |
| Bowery Life [ebook] if you don’t give me phat belongs to me [...] be the holy smoke, I’ll bate your dirty, yellow puss till there’s more wrinkles in it. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 5 Oct. 6/5: That first punch on the ‘puss’ did the trick. | |
| Eng. As We Speak It In Ireland (1979) 309: Puss; the mouth and lips [...] ‘He had a puss on him’, i.e. he looked sour or displeased with lips contracted. | |
| Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 18 June 32/4: I bow out, wash the ochre off my puss. | |
| Front Page Act I: If you was worth breaking my fingernails on, I’d tear your puss wide open. | |
| ‘So Help Me’ in Texas Stories (1995) 17: It began to gimme a pain just to look at that weasly-lookin’ puss. | |
| Halo For Satan (1949) 43: You shoulda seen his puss when I tell him the Chevvy wasn’t the car I wanted. | |
| Lead With Your Left (1958) 72: The powder on her puss seemed to accent the wrinkles. | |
| Big Rumble 109: You done a good thing. Them guys don’t know a good thing when they have it pushed in their pusses. | |
| Carlito’s Way 77: One look at your guinea puss and [...] he’ll bolt like a rabbit. | |
| Fort Apache, The Bronx 341: You had to keep comin’ around stickin’ your Irish puss where it didn’t belong. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Trainspotting 85: Ah wis the cunt wi the fuckin pool cue in ma hand, n the plukey cunt could huv the fat end ay it in his pus if he wanted. | |
| Down Cobbled Streets, A Liberties Childhood 120: So would you if ye were in the muck and slush ’f the market since sunrise and then have to face the sour pusses of you lot. | |
| I, Fatty 131: He [...] stuck that pretty puss of his right up to mine. | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 23: All I get here [...] is gloom, despair and greeting puses. | |
| Hard Bounce [ebook] [A] huge grin on his puss. | |
| Dead Man’s Trousers 67: Whin ye stat the John Grieg, ye pit oan that coupon, that sad, baleful pus. | |
| ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 76: ‘[G]et that smirk off your puss’. |
3. (Irish) a sulky look; also as v., to pout or sulk; thus have a puss on
| ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III:vii 546: puss, v. To pout or sulk. ‘He’s pussing about what we said.’. | |
| Plough and the Stars Act II: You louse, you! If I were a man, or you were a woman, I’d bate the puss o’ you. | |
| Sexus (1969) 73: ‘Because I’m a half-wit,’ he would say, making a sour puss. | |
| Tell me, Sean O’Farrell 21: ‘Where are you fellows going, without paying for your drinks,’ she called and she with a puss on her. | |
| Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Puss (n): face, usually sulky. | |
| Rules of Revelation 296: ‘Did you just not like my mam?’ The offended puss on him. |
In derivatives
(US) a sufficiency, esp. of drink.
| Cinderella Liberty 97: Come liberty call go get your pussful in the dark and loud places all you boys go to. |
In phrases
to display a sulky or ill-humoured face.
| Stone Mad (1966) 56: Tis often I noticed the puss they have on of a Monday. | |
| ‘Vicious Circle’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 29: You look lousy when you’ve got a puss on. | |
| Van (1998) 397: But then you put this puss on yeh – it’s not my fault we’ve no fuckin’ money for you fuckin’ Christmas cards. | |
| (con. 1970) Danti-Dan in McGuinness Dazzling Dark (1996) II ii: Christ Almighty, this place is gone mental altogether. Everyone has a puss on them over something. |
(US) to be quiet, to stop talking; also as imper.
| Tomboy (1952) 99: Shut your goddam puss! |