Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. well-dressed, stylish, high-class.

1942		L. Bennett in Jamaica Dialect Verses 50: Stoshus: elegant.
1950		Bennett, Clarke & Wilson Anancy Stories and Dialect Verse 101: stoshus – ‘high class’.
1966		(ref. to 1940s) L. Bennett Jamaica Labrish 224: stoshus. classy.
1976		L. Bennett Auntie Roachy Sey (2003) 11: One stocious examiner ask some student pon TV ‘What is the Jamaica National Flower?’.
1991		L.E. Adams Jam. Patois 47: Ku deh! No Sta B dat een im stoshus big-heel boot? – Look there! Isn’t that Sister B in her classy high-heel shoes?
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 50: Stoshus posh, upper crust, sophisticated.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 191: Walking in our area in their stoosh suits, doing some fuckery social study.

2. good-looking.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

3. (also stoush, stush) snobbish, arrogant, stuck-up.

1964		A. Bennett God the Stonebreaker 139: Me love me own race and like to see them rise, but tell you the truth, me is afraid when them elevate. [...] They get ‘stocious’, if you know what I mean.
1991		L.E. Adams Jam. Patois 62: Stoosh: upper class, high tone, hitey-titey.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 43: Im a’right. E’s wid me. Don’t carry arn stush.
2004		Dizzee Rascal ‘Flyin’’ 🎵 He’s always got a screwface, he’s stoush, he thinks he’s heavy.
2008		A. Wheatle Dirty South 71: I bet you won’t get to work it . . . She looks too stush.
2011		Kon-shens ‘Bad Girl’ 🎵 Gyal if yuh too stush mu nuh like you.
2015		Jamaica Obs. 23 Aug. 🌐 She was dubbed the ‘stoosh girl’ because she was not allowed to hang out.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 266: She’s acting all stoosh [...] won’t even hold my hand.