Pooh Bah

or pooh bah, Pooh-Ba, poo·bah

[ poo bah ]

noun

1. a person who holds several positions, especially ones that give bureaucratic importance.
2. a leader, authority, or other important person:

   one of the Pooh Bahs of the record industry.

3. a pompous, self-important person.

Pooh-Bah

/ ˈpuːˈbɑː /

noun

1. a pompous self-important official holding several offices at once and fulfilling none of them

Pooh-Bah

1. 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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pooh Bah¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pooh Bah¹

C19: after the character, the Lord-High-Everything-Else, in The Mikado (1885), a light opera by Gilbert and Sullivan

Example Sentences

The general housework servant has already been referred to as a Pooh Bah in petticoats.

From Project Gutenberg

But even as the Tinkletown Pooh-Bah posed in restful supremacy there were rushing down upon him affairs of the epoch-making kind.

From Project Gutenberg

The bystanders looked at one another blankly, and at last the concentrated gaze fell upon the Pooh-Bah of the town.

From Project Gutenberg

Every one of us, or almost every one of us, does in reality fulfil almost as many offices as Pooh-Bah.

From Project Gutenberg

We have allowed him to become a sort of autocrat, a golfing Pooh-Bah, a self-appointed committee of one with arbitrary powers.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• celebrity
• dignitary
• luminary