Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to deride, to dismiss.

1836		T. Hook Gilbert Gurney 182: He [...] put his glass to his eye, and his finger to his nose, and pooh, poohed.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Dead Drummer’ Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 207: He pooh-pooh’d his friend, / Swearing all was a lie from beginning to end.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 16: He had made rather light of the case, and as for danger he had pooh-poohed it with good-humored contempt.
1859		Bell’s Life in Tasmania 26 July 2/2: Vain now are the attempts to pooh-pooh! the spirit of enterprise.
1861		Hills & Plains I 90: ‘[H]e pooh-pooh'd her idea of going to keep his house for him’.
1866		Wild Boys of London II 134/2: Ned had offered his testimony against him. But he had been ‘pooh-poohed’ by the lawyers, and chuffed up by everyone else.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 49: Such men [...] conceal stones about them, and [...] fling them at the doctor’s head as soon as he began to ‘pooh-pooh’ their ailments.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 24 May 29/1: [caption] ‘And, looking down from his ridculous eminence, coolly pooh-pooh every word’.
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 118: The citizens pooh-pooh at our fear of scorpions.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 11/4: Revolution is not to be pooh-poohed when the Guards and the artillery swell the ranks of the discontented.
1897		Boy’s Own Paper 13 Nov. 106: The mate [...] simply poo-poohed the idea of there having been any danger.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 239: The captain shook hands with me cordially, pooh-poohing the loss of the boat as an unavoidable incident of the trade.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Sept. 12/4: So far from being shocked, the recipients [...] now pooh-pooh the Marshall-Hall drivel as ‘mere tommy-rot.’.
1905		N. Gale ‘The Enthusiast’ More Cricket Songs 42: The Major, till the paper comes, / Is by a hundred fidgets shaken; / Upon the tablecloth he drums, / Condemns the toast, pooh-poohs the bacon.
1906		N.Z. Truth 4 Aug. 5/4: [He] pooh-poohs the advocacy of practical men.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 226: She certainly pooh-poohed his idea.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 596: From inside information extending over a series of years Mr Bloom was rather inclined to poohpooh the suggestion as egregious balderdash.
1931		Ade Old-Time Saloon 73: The typical saloon-keeper pooh-poohed the statutes.
1944		News of the World 11 June 7: He just pooh-poohed the idea that there was anything wrong.
1956		E.J. Ruppelt Report on UFOs 47: Veteran’s Administration psychiatrist publicly pooh-poohed this.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 79: She pooh-poohed. ‘You know I don’t believe that damn old crap!’.
1973		in C. Browne Body Shop 103: A friend of mine [...] wanted to see a psych. His parents pooh-poohed it.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 18: Sergeant Gerheim [...] poo-pooed the recruit’s shallow slash across his wrists with a bayonet.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 193: She was heartily endorsed by the man on the first floor, who tended to pooh-pooh the suspicion of the man on the second.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘McCullough to Cut the Deadwood’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [S]he writes books normal people can understand and enjoy, and makes a packet while she’s at it.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘McCullough to Cut the Deadwood’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [H]er peers [...] pooh-pooh her and say she’s not a good writer.
1992		R. Barnard A Fatal Attachment (1993) 179: And like he was pooh-poohing the idea.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 70: Toby was all fawer hinviting him back to thar hotel, bat Hi poo-poohed thet hi-dear.
2010		Sun. Times Mag. 19 Dec. 62/2: She pooh-poohs the charge.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 36: I pooh-poohed it [i.e. an argument].