variants
also poo-bah
as in heavyweight
one of high position or importance within a group
an annual clambake that attracts political pooh-bahs from around the state
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Recent Examples of pooh-bah
Instead of improving classroom instruction, education pooh-bahs try to hide their failures by dumbing down standards.
—
Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
This kind of surgical enhancement can still be frowned upon in the restoration world, decried as fakery by the pooh-bahs of all-original-everything.
—Lawrence Ulrich, Robb Report, 13 July 2024
To Richardson-Merrell’s pooh-bahs, her scrutiny seemed like the dilatory work of someone who didn’t know how the game was played.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024
Like Joe Rogan, the carnivorous pooh-bah of this intellectual space, Brand appeared interested in teaching a certain kind of man how to be a certain kind of man, mining the tension between think-for-yourself riffs and listen-to-me conclusions.
—Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times, 13 Nov. 2023
But the pooh-bahs in Brussels didn’t exactly rush to say yes.
—Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 25 Oct. 2023
Steve Forbes, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
This kind of surgical enhancement can still be frowned upon in the restoration world, decried as fakery by the pooh-bahs of all-original-everything.
—Lawrence Ulrich, Robb Report, 13 July 2024
To Richardson-Merrell’s pooh-bahs, her scrutiny seemed like the dilatory work of someone who didn’t know how the game was played.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024
Like Joe Rogan, the carnivorous pooh-bah of this intellectual space, Brand appeared interested in teaching a certain kind of man how to be a certain kind of man, mining the tension between think-for-yourself riffs and listen-to-me conclusions.
—Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times, 13 Nov. 2023
But the pooh-bahs in Brussels didn’t exactly rush to say yes.
—Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 25 Oct. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pooh-bah
Noun
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Zhao's feature also counts Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes as producers.—
Sydney Bucksbaum,
Entertainment Weekly,
12 Jan. 2026
-
Banks, transportation stocks, hotels and small-caps are cooking, helping to offset the cooling-off in several of the tech heavyweights that had large1ly led the S & P’s three-year, 80% advance.—
Michael Santoli,
CNBC,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The arrangement, a multiyear partnership between two of tech’s biggest bigs, buys Apple more time to get its AI house in order and expands Google’s AI footprint across the global mobile device landscape.—
Andrew Nusca,
Fortune,
13 Jan. 2026
-
Sochan has experience defending bigger initiators like Cunningham as well as bigger scoring wings and is also a sharp cutter on offense who has a strong sense of how to play off bigs who can pass and space the court.—
Sam Vecenie,
New York Times,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
The Dark Ages gave us an extremely metal prequel that — while a bit too lore and cutscene-heavy — presented more surprising tricks and gameplay refreshes to keep the long-running FPS series alive and kicking butt.—
Fran Ruiz,
Space.com,
26 Dec. 2025
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However, a combination of tariffs, inflation and narrow GDP growth kept the tech-heavy S & P 500 in the lead over the Russell 2000.—
Lisa Kailai Han,
CNBC,
10 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Singer island is so named after Paris Singer, a descendant of the Singer Sewing Machine magnate, who began developing the Palm Beach coastline into a national luxury destination in the 1920s.—
Kelsey Glennon,
Southern Living,
7 Jan. 2026
-
O’Leary isn’t the only nonprofessional in Marty Supreme’s sprawling cast, which includes rapper Tyler the Creator, real-life table-tennis champion Koto Kawaguchi, filmmaker Abel Ferrara, and supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
2 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Eric Adams, the former mayor of New York, is firing back at the Bravo bigwig.—
Emlyn Travis,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 Jan. 2026
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In short, Jeffrey Selingo, a former bigwig at The Chronicle of Higher Education, embedded himself into the admissions department at three schools — one of which just happened to be Davidson College.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
15 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Amidst all those tech tycoons, luxury’s biggest name sits at seventh in the billionaire rankings.—
Rachel Cormack,
Robb Report,
31 Dec. 2025
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Former Russian banking tycoon Oleg Tinkov says a single Instagram post condemning the war in Ukraine cost him nearly $9 billion, after he was forced to sell his stake in his bank for a fraction of its real value.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
29 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pooh-bah.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pooh-bah. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.
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