posh, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

posh adj.

[ety. unknown. The OED, like most modern authorities, rejects the trad. ‘port out, starboard home’ derivation. DSUE and J.P. Mayer (in Cohen (ed.), Studies in Slang I (1985), opt for a contraction of polished, well turned out, smart, sophisticated (note US milit. use in You Chirped a Chinful!! (c.1943), posh: bright and polished); M. Quinion in Port Out, Starboard Home (2004) prefers a link to posh n.²; the novelist P.G. Wodehouse uses push in 1903, which OED sees as a synon., but this may be linked to push n. (2a), a clique]

(orig. milit.) smart, pertaining to the upper classes.

[1903		Wodehouse Tales of St Austin’s 37: That waistcoat [...] being quite the most push thing of the sort in Cambridge].
c.1914		George Robey [perf.] ‘Camille’ 🎵 The last one to come from the wash / Is not what the soldiers call Posh / For the front is as limp as a stale piece of gimp / Eileen starched the tail part, by gosh.
1917		F. Dunham diary 8 Mar. Long Carry (1970) 33: These were ‘posh’ places compared to the usual dugouts. [Ibid.] 13 Nov. 92: Little did we think [...] that we were leaving the Arras trenches for the last time. Things were so ‘posh’ and ‘cushy’ here.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 229: Posh: Smart. Spruce.
1934		Film Fun 8 Sept. 1: Ollie came along a little later looking very posh indeed.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 131: We’re goin’ ter ’ave a posh feed at the bes’ hotel.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 7: Haddock, though not as posh as he might be [...] foots the bills.
1956		J. Osborne Look Back in Anger Act I: There are only two posh papers on a Sunday.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 212: Shall I get a Wisdom from Boots, or a fancy black one, with gold inlay, at a posh shop?
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 12 Oct. 28: You imagine them in their posh houses, getting up to all kinds of things.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 31: [A] very deadly looking bloke who was sitting right next to the posh bloke.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 514: You do go on about the posh Mr. McCoy and his posh auto and his posh flat and his posh job and his posh daddy and his posh girlfriend.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 128: The atmosphere was that of a posh Bedlam.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] Bloody posh [...] S’pose this is where me sixty grand went.
2000		M. Amis Experience 17: It used to be cool to be posh.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] He’d never been in a posh hotel.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 4: ‘“The use of surnames is demeaning and depersonalising and must be phased out,”’ he recited in a posh voice. ‘Load of fucking pish’.
2021		A. Parks April Dead 158: ‘Let’s go and look at some posh motors’.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 140: ‘[W]atching those posh bastards drive her business into the ground’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 222: The ‘Sicko Psycho’ targeted the ‘swank’ houses of single women [...] How many posh pads did he hit.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 380: Posh slag Moira Furnace.

In derivatives

posharoon (n.)

(Aus.) a member of the upper classes.

1996

J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 232: There he was out at Royal Randwick, right in amongst the posharoons out on the lawn in the Members’ Enclosure.

poshery (n.)

upper-class airs.

1963

K. Williams Diaries 19 July 217: These young men in Hardy Amies suits who always have boxes of fifty fags and generate poshery.

In compounds

posh-knob (n.)

a member of the upper class and/or establishment.

2013

K. Sampson Killing Pool 153: They [i.e. criminals] socialise with posh-knobs and soap stars and footballers.

In phrases

all poshed up (adj.)

1. dressed up.

1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 347: Poshed Up. Dressed up for a special occasion.
1934		Ex-Légionnaire 1384 Legion of the Lost 254: I was going down to the town to see a girl, and I was all poshed up.

2. rendered sophisticated, ‘classy’.

1961

J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 160: I called it the Penguin Club [...] all poshed-up so the seedier members of the fraternity would feel ill-at-easem, but the spenders wouldn’t.

bit of posh (n.) [var. on bit of rough n.²]

an attractive young woman who is also considered intelligent or upper class.

1978		Ian Dury ‘Billericay Dickie’ 🎵 A nice bit of posh from Burnham-on-Crouch.
1999		Guardian G2 27 July 22: She’s sexy, she is. Bit of posh.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 49: First time out he’s got himself hitched up to this bitta posh who’s half a duchess.
2000		Indep. Rev. 18 Feb. 9: Mags and Jan (Den’s bits of posh).

do the posh (v.)

(Aus.) to spend to excess, to do something in style.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 56: Posh, do the, to spend lavishly, do something ‘in style’.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 232/2: do the posh – put on the dog.

posh (up) (v.)

of a person, to smarten one’s clothes, house etc.

1930		(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier 152: Posh Up.—To smarten one’s appearance.
1935		F. Bason Diary I (1950) 75: [Somerset] Maugham’s daughter got married today. Mum and I poshed ourselves up and went and looked on.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 59: He had poshed himself up to call on Ted’s sister, Rose.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 103: May as well posh meself up even if it is only Flo and Jim.
1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 29: The club is an old cellar poshed up with hardboard and flashy paper.
1974		Stage (London) 10 Jan. 16/4: He brought to it the touich of lively Yorkshire comedy (with no attempt to posh up the accent).
1993		(con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 80: Her accent was poshed up.

put one’s posh on (v.)

(Aus.) to assume upper-class mannerisms.

2018

G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘[P]ut your posh on and butter them up’.