Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an excl. of dismissal, derision, anger or surprise.

1582		Long Meg of Westminster (1750) 9: Pho! said Usher, jeeringly.
c.1597		Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor I iii: ‘Steal!’ foh! a fico for the phrase!
1601		Jonson Cynthia’s Revels III ii: Fough! he smells all lamp-oil with studying by candle-light.
1601		Marston Jacke Drums Entertainment Act IV: Marry phoh, wil you match me to a foole?
1605		Chapman & Jonson Eastward Ho! I i: Marry faugh, goodman flat-cap! ’Sfoot!
1608		Dekker Lanthorne and Candle-Light Ch. 4: Fuh cry all the Shearers, a pox on these Fox-furd Curmudgions.
1616		Jonson Devil is an Ass V iv: Fough! what a steam of brimstone Is here!
1619		Rowlands Well met Gossip B4: Fough, what a filthy smell.
1632		R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded III i: Marry fough. Goodie Foyst.
1638		R. Brome Antipodes IV ii: Gip gaffer Shotten, faugh, / Take that for your coy Counsell.
a.1661		‘A Psalm Sung by the People’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 88: Fogh! come let us bury’t, / To th’ hole we must carry’t, / This Rump it stinks above ground.
1676		A Newgate ex-prisoner A Warning for House-Keepers 6: Mary faugh you son of a w....
1681		Otway Soldier’s Fortune I i: Faugh, ye lousy red-coat rake-hells!
1690		Dryden Don Sebastian 39: He smells of his Country garlike! fugh, how he stinks of Spain.
1691		J. Wilson Belphegor II i: Hough!—jangle with you!
1693		Congreve Old Bachelor V v: Oh, foh! what does the filthy fellow mean?
1696		G. Granville She-Gallants II 1: [T]ho she grows never so old, so odious, so stinking, and ill-favour'd, phogh.
1699		Farquhar Love and a Bottle I i: Faugh – it makes me Sick.
1700		Farquhar Constant Couple I i: Faugh! the nauseous fellow!
1709		S. Centlivre Busy Body II i: Po’gh for a hundred Things: I can’t for my Life tell you for what.
1709		M. Pix Adventures in Madrid II i: Pough! What a dismal Sound has that joyn’d to Love.
1709		‘Phoebe Crackenthorpe’ Female Tatler (1992) (9) 18: ‘Fogh!’ says he.
1710		A Society of Ladies Female Tatler (1992) (79) 157: ‘Phough,’ says she, ‘I hate your formal ways of beginning and ending with a breath.’.
1713		C. Shadwell Humours of the Army II i: Faugh upon they nasty Weed, Sir.
1725		N. Ward Amorous Bugbears 26: Foh! reply’d Madam.
1731		C. Coffey Devil to Pay II i: Faugh! what a stink of Brimstone’s here!
a.1742		W. Somerville ‘The Officious Messenger’ in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) XI 227/1: Her ladyship began to huff [...] ‘Tis wrong to make your kennel here – Dogs in their place are good I own – But in the parlour – foh! – be gone.
1748		Spy on Mother Midnight I 22: The Devil! Pho, the Devil. never troubles his Head about them [i.e. girls and sex]; no, it’s the Men that teaches them.
1754		T. Sheridan Brave Irishman I ii: Pugh, you great oaf, says I.
1760		G. Colman Polly Honeycombe 33: Filthy poison! don’t mention it!—Faugh! I hate the very names of them.
1770		D. Gunston (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 10: ‘Pho! pho’ (cried the earl) so far from that I am told you could never agree’.
1786		F. Pilon He Would be a Soldier V ii: Pho, pho! Father, do you think I know no better?
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist II 3: Faugh! I can hardly forbear spitting at their memories.
1807		Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860) 366: Faugh! Allah preserve me from such beauties.
1814		I. Pocock John of Paris II i: Yet to dine with a citizen—Faw!
1817		W. Scott Rob Roy (1883) 319: Ye may tak a bit o’ the plaid – figh! she smells like a singit sheep’s head!
1827		R.B. Peake Comfortable Lodgings I ii: That’s your taste – faugh!
1836		Newry Teleg. 24 Nov. 4/1: ‘Pho, pho, my dear! Never saw you look better in my life!’ .
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 253: ‘Kiss her!’ exclaimed Mr Bumble, in strong indignation. ‘Faugh!’.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 26: Scarcely had the stopper been withdrawn, when she gave a louder screech than she had yet executed, and, exclaiming ‘faugh!’ with an expression of the most concentrated disgust.
1843		‘Madison Tensas’ Louisiana ‘Swamp Doctor’ (1850) 162: I fear my eldest born has got – faugh! I sicken at the thought – the chill and fever!
1848		G.F. Ruxton Life in the Far West (1849) 13: The Pawnees made a raise of a dozen mules, wagh!
1858		F.W. Farrar Eric II 218: ‘Faugh!’ said Eric.
1860		E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 143: ‘Pho! nonsense,’ he said.
1862		Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 318: Faugh! It’s corked!
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone III 167: Faugh! how she smells of brandy.
1881		Dundee Courier 11 Jan. 7/3: ‘Faugh,’ gruffly exclaimed M’Tartan.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Sept. 3/2: Faugh! [...] William Castle, [...] has a secretary engaged in sending paragraphs to the western papers [...] as an ‘ad’ for himself.
1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet II 201: ‘Faugh!’ he continued.
1894		Somerville & Ross Real Charlotte II 139: Paugh! let her try!
1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Mar. 1/6: I want a new exclamation [...] Faugh! and Bah! [...] are too coarse for Sunday wear.
1896		E. Pugh Man of Straw 4: Faugh! What do you care?
1898		Boy’s Own Paper 19 Nov. 119: Faugh! Isn’t it horrid!
1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 61: Gray turned an angry glance upon the brown packet [...] ‘Faugh!’ he exclaimed.
1933		N. West ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ Coll. Works (1975) 218: I spit on them all. Phooh!
1935		E.F. Benson Mapp and Lucia (1984) 173: Damn the woman! Faugh!
1948		J.F. Bardin Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly in Bardin Omnibus (1976) 488: Faugh! It’s positively insipid.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 65: The thought was a bitter one, and I don’t suppose I have ever come closer to saying ‘Faugh!’.