Word.ws English Dictionary

po-faced

/ˈpəʊ.feɪst/

po-faced adjective: wearing a particularly stern and disapproving expression; humourless; priggish.

Adjective

po-faced (comparative more po-faced, superlative most po-faced)

  1. (UK) Wearing a particularly stern and disapproving expression; humourless; priggish.
    • Nae hassle man . . . I'll git oaf the skag, and Saughton's barry fir hash. It'll be a piece ay pish likesay . . . he sais, as he's escorted away by a po–faced labdick.1993, Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, Times Film School, page 68
    • I mean, you would never guess if you came up from the South to Edinburgh in August that it is such a po-faced, humourless place, now would you?2007 August 16, Kelvin Holdsworth, “Edinburgh?”, in Thurible.net
  2. (UK) Poker-faced.

po-faced meaning in Bengali

po-faced in Bengali

রসহীন, নীতিনিষ্ঠ, ভাবলেশহীন মুখ বিশিষ্ট

Forms of po-faced

comparativemore po-faced
superlativemost po-faced

Origin of po-faced

Uncertain, probably from po, abbreviated slang based on French pot de chambre (“chamber pot”), after the distasteful expression anyone would adopt upon being presented with a full one. Perhaps similarly from pooh; perhaps influenced by poker-faced. Also possibly “poor-faced”.

Words formed from po-faced

Questions about po-faced

What does po-faced mean?
Po-faced means wearing a particularly stern and disapproving expression; humourless; priggish.
What is po-faced in Bengali?
Po-faced in Bengali is রসহীন, নীতিনিষ্ঠ, ভাবলেশহীন মুখ বিশিষ্ট. See Po-faced meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is po-faced?
Po-faced is an adjective.
How do you pronounce po-faced?
Po-faced is pronounced /ˈpəʊ.feɪst/.

Words near po-faced in the dictionary

  1. po'ouli
  2. po'oulis
  3. Po-ao
  4. Po-chou
  5. po-face
  6. po-faced
  7. po-faces
  8. po-mo
  9. po-po
  10. po-pos
  11. po.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: po-faced (page history and authors); po-faced (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “po-faced.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/po-faced. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.