Word.ws English Dictionary

pooch

/puːt͡ʃ/

pooch noun: a dog.

Noun (1)

pooch (plural pooches)

  1. (informal) A dog.
    • She’s just been playing with the pooch ever since they got in the field.
    • My thoughts are disturbed by a man and pooch trying to get off the front of the train. Despite hitting the door button, they refused to open.2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 58
  2. A dog of mixed breed; a mongrel.

Noun (2)

pooch (countable and uncountable, plural pooches)

  1. (countable, informal) A bulge, an enlarged part.
    • There's a pooch in the plastic where it got too hot.
  2. (informal) A distended or swelled condition.
    • Her left sleeve has more pooch at the shoulder than the right.
  3. (broadly, informal) The lower belly region; often in reference to the stubborn fat stored in the abdominal area.
    • See also: paunch

Verb

pooch (third-person singular simple present pooches, present participle pooching, simple past and past participle pooched)

  1. (informal, intransitive) To distend, to swell or extend beyond normal limits; usually used with out.
    • Inflate that tire too much and the tube may pooch out of the cut in the sidewall.
    • There were rustling sounds from the tent and the sides pooched out as if they were trying to stand up.1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 21, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 124

Examples of pooch in a sentence

  • "Degradation of trichlorfon occurs through the splitting of the Phosphorus-Carbon (P-C) bond and through hydrolysis of the poOCH bonds resulting in trace amounts of dichlorvos, a more acutely toxic organophosphate."
  • Participating pooches must be between 12-20 weeks old at the time of taping.
  • Here's hoping we have some nice weather for these promenading pooches.”

All 18 example sentences with pooch

Forms of pooch

Noun
pluralpooches
Verb
third-person singular presentpooches
present participlepooching
past participlepooched
pastpooched

Plural of pooch: pooches

Origin of pooch

Of uncertain origin. One (unsubstantiated) conjecture is that the word comes from Putzi, a common German name given to lapdogs. The name Putzi is possibly formed from German Putz + -i, influenced by German putzig (“funny, cute, small”, adjective).

Probably related to pouch.

Words formed from pooch

Phrases with pooch

Words that rhyme with pooch

Questions about pooch

What does pooch mean?
Pooch means a dog.
What part of speech is pooch?
Pooch can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pooch?
Pooch is pronounced /puːt͡ʃ/.
What is the plural of pooch?
The plural of pooch is pooches.

Words near pooch in the dictionary

  1. poo-pooing
  2. poo-poos
  3. poo-uli
  4. poobah
  5. poobahs
  6. pooch
  7. pooch out
  8. pooched
  9. pooches
  10. poochie
  11. Poochie-fication

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pooch (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-pooch.ogg.

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