pout
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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pouts,
present (3rd person singular)
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pouted,
past participle, past
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pouting
present participle
verb (used with object)
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pouts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pouted,
past participle, past
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pouting
present participle
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to protrude (the lips).
-
to utter with a pout.
noun
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the act of pouting; a protrusion of the lips.
-
a fit of sullenness.
to be in a pout.
noun
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pout,
plural
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pouts
plural
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a northern marine food fish, Trisopterus luscus.
verb
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to thrust out (the lips), as when sullen, or (of the lips) to be thrust out
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(intr) to swell out; protrude
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(tr) to utter with a pout
noun
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(sometimes the pouts) a fit of sullenness
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the act or state of pouting
noun
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short for horned pout eelpout
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any of various gadoid food fishes, esp the bib (also called whiting pout )
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any of certain other stout-bodied fishes
Usage
What does pout mean? To pout is to act in a gloomy and irritated way; to mope or sulk. Children sometimes pout when they don’t get their way, often by sitting with their arms crossed and a specific look on their face: a kind of frown with the lips pushed out (sometimes just the bottom lip). This expression is also called a pout. The term is typically used in the context of young children, but it can be applied to adults in some situations. Example: My toddler pouts when he doesn’t get his way, but I guess it’s better than throwing a tantrum.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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poutsimple
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poutssimple
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have poutedperfect
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has poutedperfect
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am poutingprogressive
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are poutingprogressive
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is poutingprogressive
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have been poutingperfect progressive
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has been poutingperfect progressive
Past
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poutedsimple
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had poutedperfect
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was poutingprogressive
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were poutingprogressive
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had been poutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pout1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English pouten; probably from Old Norse; compare Swedish dialect puta “to be inflated,” Norwegian (noun) “pute ”
Origin of pout2
First recorded before 1000; Old English -pūta, in ǣlepūta “eelpout” (not recorded in Middle English ); akin to Low German pūtāl and aalputte “eelpout,” Dutch puit “frog”
Explanation
When something doesn’t go your way and you get annoyed about it, that’s a pout. And when you let the world know about it by thrusting out your lower lip, you are pouting. Get over it. When you pout, you’re expressing annoyance or displeasure. It’s a sulky kind of gesture, one that involves a facial expression more than words — in fact, a pout is often accompanied by a moody silence. The verb form of pout describes the action, and the noun form describes the facial expression. Maybe it's not a coincidence that a pout is also a type of fish. Pouting faces are a bit fish-like in their expressions.
Vocabulary lists containing pout
Bud, Not Buddy
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100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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Stargirl
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Unlike Santa, who ho-ho-hos his way through the holiday season, Grinches twerk and pout and scream in kids’ faces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 25, 2025
Lady Beckham's pout became her defining look in the 1990s.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2025
Her lips, coated in a nude lipstick, are pursed just enough to achieve the perfect pout.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2025
Now, scientists have trained a facial robot to anticipate and mirror human expressions, allowing it to produce a simultaneous smile—or frown, or pout.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2024
Her suspicions remained on her face as a beaky pout.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
The love interest in Sara Jafari's "The Mismatch" is a British lad with all the embarrassment that entails; wearing running shorts in the winter, posting shirtless selfies where he pouts at the camera.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2022
Frantic and wildly overstuffed — with characters, locations, pretty pouts and greatest hits — the image that kept coming to mind was of an exploding piñata.
From New York Times ● May 26, 2022
She pouts a little because she thinks I’m not committed to the new dynamic.
From Slate ● Apr. 14, 2021
Performing a cameo with a Stones cover band called the Blushing Brides, Potash claps and points, pouts and shakes his hips, spitting out the words: "Huh, shidoobee, shattered, shattered!"
From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2020
Never before have we locked her out of the basement for so long, and she pays us back with pathetic pouts.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
As the night went on, he pouted adorably every time he didn’t get a strike.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 8, 2023
I bought her a gift like I did Lana and Sophie, but once I gave Lana the gift card, she whined and pouted.
From Slate ● Oct. 12, 2023
So I responded as a typical teenager: I pouted, with my arms crossed, stubbornly refusing to enjoy it.
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2023
I pouted in the backseat while my dad drove our family up the 79, past the Grove City outlets, through Meadville and finally reaching Lake Erie.
From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2022
But he also pouted about work assignments and succumbed to fits of anger.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
And yet the pouting Pratt pulled more than 200,000 votes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2026
With the bases loaded, I was still pouting when the batter drilled the ball deep to right.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
I had snapped a photo earlier in which he appeared to be pouting.
From Slate ● Jan. 3, 2026
In Silicon Valley, you have the Elon Musk and Peter Thiel breed, who have made billions of dollars yet spend most of their time pouting because middle class journalists on Twitter think they're dumb.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
She leaned over to look at me and saw me pouting.
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
