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
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
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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The owner, a local steel magnate, had a clear philosophy of investing in players with untapped potential.—
Adam Crafton,
New York Times,
2 May 2025
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Listen to this article A dental magnate and the owner of the nation’s largest personal injury law firm are among the financial backers of the effort hoping to lure Major League Baseball to Orlando.—
Ryan Gillespie,
The Orlando Sentinel,
29 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Sue Ellen, who was married to philandering oil tycoon J.R.—
Stephanie Nolasco,
FOXNews.com,
26 Apr. 2025
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About 60 years earlier, railroad tycoon Leland Stanford had founded the university on his stock farm in Palo Alto, a sparsely populated town in a region where apricot and peach trees outnumbered houses.—
Mark Dent,
HubSpot,
25 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The king traveled to Italy the following month with Queen Camilla for a four-day state visit that saw Charles deliver an address to the Italian parliament.—
William James,
USA Today,
1 May 2025
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Are all these things part of a vision of becoming the king of pop?—
Laia Garcia-Furtado,
Vogue,
1 May 2025
Noun
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Join 13 others in the comments View Comments Apart from more details on the reserve, industry bigwigs (who’ve long complained that the Biden administration was strangling crypto) are looking forward to some basic regulatory guidance.—
Allison Morrow,
CNN,
7 Mar. 2025
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With that in mind, backing new filmmakers with wild projects and bucking the kind of risk aversion that seems to govern modern Hollywood comes down to intuition — and maybe pissing off a few industry bigwigs along the way.—
Chris Lee,
Vulture,
3 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pooh-bah.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pooh-bah. Accessed 11 May. 2025.
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