Pooh Bah
or Pooh-Ba, poo·bah
[ poo -bah ]
/ ˈpu ˌbɑ /
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noun (often lowercase)
a person who holds several positions, especially ones that give him or her bureaucratic importance.
a leader, authority, or other important person: one of the pooh bahs of the record industry.
a pompous, self-important person.
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Origin of Pooh Bah
First recorded in 1880–85; after a character in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, who holds all of the high offices of state simultaneously and uses them for personal gain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
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British Dictionary definitions for Pooh Bah
Pooh-Bah
/ (ˈpuːˈbɑː) /
noun
a pompous self-important official holding several offices at once and fulfilling none of them
Word Origin for Pooh-Bah
C19: after the character, the Lord-High-Everything-Else, in The Mikado (1885), a light opera by Gilbert and Sullivan
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for Pooh Bah
Pooh-Bah
A self-important person of high position and great influence. Pooh-Bah is a character in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado; his title is Lord-High-Everything-Else.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.