Word.ws English Dictionary

pshaw

/ˈʃɔː/

pshaw interjection: indicating contempt, disgust, irritation, impatience, or disbelief.

Interjection

  1. Indicating contempt, disgust, irritation, impatience, or disbelief.
    • Pshaw! I can't believe it!
    • "Pshaw! Why do ye bother yourself wid texts, man, about so small a matter?" interrupted the landlady1823, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 13, in The Pioneers
    Synonyms:
    pht, psh, pshh, phht, pssh, pssht, psht, pshht, feh, pooh

Verb

pshaw (third-person singular simple present pshaws, present participle pshawing, simple past and past participle pshawed)

  1. (intransitive) To express disgust or contempt by saying “pshaw”.

pshaw meaning in Malay and Vietnamese

pshaw in Malay

indicating contempt or disgust
cis

pshaw in Vietnamese

indicating contempt or disgust
xì

Examples of pshaw in a sentence

  • 'Pshaw!' Ralph muttered, forcing a laugh.1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 56, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […]...
  • "Have a care, cousin," he whispered; "for the sake of the Virgin have a care, for you have angered him." ¶ "Pshaw! fear not," the other answered in the same low tone.1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter 22, in The White Company, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC:
  • ‘Pshaw! left him!’ Dan said, throwing himself full length on the sofa, ‘I’d sooner work for a blackfellow!’1911, Steele Rudd, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 68:

Synonyms of pshaw

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of pshaw

Forms of pshaw

Interjection
alternative formpsshaw
alternative formpshah
alternative formpsha
Verb
third-person singular presentpshaws
present participlepshawing
past participlepshawed
pastpshawed

Origin of pshaw

A natural expressive noise of rejection. First attested in the late 17th century.

Words that rhyme with pshaw

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pshaw

What does pshaw mean?
Pshaw means indicating contempt, disgust, irritation, impatience, or disbelief.
What is pshaw in Malay?
Pshaw in Malay is cis. See Pshaw meaning in Malay.
How do you use pshaw in a sentence?
'Pshaw!' Ralph muttered, forcing a laugh.
What part of speech is pshaw?
Pshaw can be an interjection or a verb.
How do you pronounce pshaw?
Pshaw is pronounced /ˈʃɔː/.

Words near pshaw in the dictionary

  1. pshat
  2. Pshav
  3. Pshavi
  4. Pshavian
  5. Pshavs
  6. pshaw
  7. pshawed
  8. pshawing
  9. pshaws
  10. PSHE
  11. Pshenychne

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pshaw (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-us-pshaw.ogg.

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