puss
/pʊs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern Ireland/pʉs/
puss noun: a cat. Also the alternative spelling of pus.
Noun (1)
puss (countable and uncountable, plural pusses)
- A cat.
- Our local theatre is showing Puss in Boots.
- Come here, puss! I've got some milk for you.
- A girl or young woman, or any child.
- A hare.
- He then began to beat about, in the ſame Language, and in the ſame Manner, as if he had been beating for a Hare, and at laſt cried out, 'Soho! Puſs is not far off. Here's her Form, upon my Soul; I believe I may cry ſtole away.'1749, Henry Fielding, “In which is seen a more moving Spectacle, than all the Blood in the Bodies of Thwackum and Blifil and of Twenty other such, is capable of producing”, in The History of Tom...
- '[…] It won't kill Puss any better for that.' / "'But, goodness gracious, what can that hare be made of?' I asked.1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “A Day with the Capercailzies”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low...
- The vulva (female genitalia).
- Sex with a woman.
- So don't know! So, what are you gonna do? Sell your birthright for a little bit of puss?1986, Tim Kazurinsky, Denise DeClue, About Last Night, spoken by Bernie (Jim Belushi)
- A coward; a wuss; someone who is unable to stand up for themselves.
Noun (2)
puss (plural pusses)
- The mouth.
- Shut your puss before I shut it for you.
- Hubbert has a rasping voice and a razory laugh, and he's busy and theatrical in the worst way — a noisy performing pro with whirlwind arms and a saturnine puss.1991, New York Magazine, volume 24, number 21, page 62
- The face.
- She gave him a slap in the puss.
Also used as
puss is also the alternative spelling of pus.
puss meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu
puss in Tamil
- புஸ்
puss in Marathi
- पुस
puss in Bengali
- পুস
puss in Telugu
- పుస్
More languagesFewer languages
- puss in Kannada
- ಪುಸ್
- puss in Gujarati
- પુસ
Synonyms of puss
Forms of puss
| plural | pusses |
|---|
Origin of puss
Probably from Middle Low German pūse, pūskatte or Dutch poes (“puss, cat”, also slang for “vulva”), ultimately from a common Germanic word for cat, perhaps ultimately imitative of a sound made to get its attention (compare Arabic بسة (bissa)). Akin to West Frisian poes, Low German Puus, Puuskatte, Danish pus, dialectal Swedish kattepus, Norwegian pus. Found also in several other European, North African and Asian languages; compare Romanian pisică, Persian پیشی (piši), Tamil பூசை (pūcai), Tagalog pusa and Sardinian pisittu.
Of Celtic origin, from or akin to Irish pus (“mouth, lip”), from Middle Irish bus. Compare also Middle Low German pussen (“to kiss”), Middle High German bussen (“to kiss”).
Words formed from puss
Phrases with puss
Words that rhyme with puss
Questions about puss
- What does puss mean?
- Puss means a cat.
- What is puss in Tamil?
- Puss in Tamil is புஸ். See Puss meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is puss?
- Puss is a noun.
- How do you pronounce puss?
- Puss is pronounced /pʊs/.
- What is the plural of puss?
- The plural of puss is pusses.
Words near puss in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: puss (page history and authors); puss (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); puss (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); puss (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); puss (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); puss (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); puss (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-puss.ogg.
Cite this entry: “puss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.