Word.ws English Dictionary

ponce

/pɒns/

ponce noun: synonym of kept man.

Noun (1)

ponce (plural ponces)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) Synonym of kept man.
  2. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) Synonym of pimp, especially one hired by a prostitute as a tout, bodyguard, and driver.
    Synonyms:
    pimp, fleshmonger
  3. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) Synonym of poof: an effeminate gay man; any similarly effeminate man.
    • Thanks Don, see you Don, off to sunny Spain now Don, fuck off Don. Lying in your pool like a fat blob laughing at me, you think I'm gonna have that? You really think I'm gonna have that, ya ponce.2000, Sexy Beast (motion picture), spoken by Don Logan (Ben Kingsley)
    Synonyms:
    poof, fairy, cockney

Verb

ponce (third-person singular simple present ponces, present participle poncing, simple past and past participle ponced)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) To act as a pimp.
    Synonyms:
    hustle
  2. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, broadly, derogatory, slang) To try to get rid of or sell something.
  3. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) To borrow (something) from somebody without returning it.
  4. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) To cadge.
  5. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) To behave in a posh or effeminate manner.
    • The interior was warm and dim, cluttered with flying brass pigs and poncing felt mannequins.1992, Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide

Noun (2)

ponce (plural ponces)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, Louisiana, UK, derogatory, slang) The stomach of a pig, especially when stuffed as chaudin (a Louisianan food).
    • STUFFED "PONCE"
      1 small hog ponce
      3 lbs . ground pork
      1 large bell pepper, chopped
      1 large onion head chopped
      […]1973, Mercedes Vidrine, Louisiana Lagniappe, Claitor's Law Books and Publishing, →ISBN, page 23
    • […] before Escoffier and the five mother sauces, even before Brillat-Savarin, French Acadian cooks in South Louisiana kitchens prepared ponce.2016, George Graham, Acadiana Table: Cajun and Creole Home Cooking from the Heart of Louisiana, Harvard Common Press, →ISBN, page 258

Proper noun capitalized: Ponce

Ponce

  1. A city and municipality in the south of Puerto Rico, United States.

Synonyms of ponce

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of ponce

Forms of ponce

Noun
pluralponces
Verb
third-person singular presentponces
present participleponcing
past participleponced
pastponced

Origin of ponce

Uncertain, but probably an aphetic form of French alphonse (“kept man”), from the male given name Alphonse. Also sometimes connected to pounce or French pensionnaire (“pensioner, person living without working”).

Borrowed from French panse (“belly”).

Borrowed from Spanish Ponce.

Words formed from ponce

Phrases with ponce

Words that rhyme with ponce

Questions about ponce

What does ponce mean?
Ponce means synonym of kept man.
What part of speech is ponce?
Ponce can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ponce?
Ponce is pronounced /pɒns/.
What is the plural of ponce?
The plural of ponce is ponces.

Words near ponce in the dictionary

  1. ponatinib
  2. ponazuril
  3. Ponca
  4. Ponca City
  5. Poncas
  6. ponce
  7. Ponce Inlet
  8. ponce wheel
  9. ponce wheels
  10. ponceau
  11. ponceaus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ponce (page history and authors); Ponce (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-ponce.ogg.

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