sourpuss
/ˈsaʊə(ɹ)ˌpʊs/
sourpuss noun: a person who is habitually gloomy, sullen or miserable; a grouch; a scowling person.
Noun
sourpuss (plural sourpusses)
- A person who is habitually gloomy, sullen or miserable; a grouch; a scowling person.
- [Katara (Mae Whitman):] Guys, I think these scams have gone far enough. If you keep doing them, something bad is gonna happen.
[Toph (Jessie Flower):] Could you for once stop being such a sourpuss and just lighten up.
[Katara:] Oh, I'm sorry, you think I should be more like you? Like some wild...2007 November 2, Joshua Hamilton, “The Runaway” (8:24 from the start), in Giancarlo Volpe, director, Avatar: The Last Airbender, season 3 (Book Three: Fire), episode 7, spoken by Katara and Toph... - They butt heads sometimes because Jenna can be pretty selfish and tone-deaf, and Jeordie can be a little bit of a sourpuss.2025, S.E. Case, “Bonus Comics”, in Rigsby WI, volume 1: Foothold, →ISBN, page Ladies Be Shopping
- [Katara (Mae Whitman):] Guys, I think these scams have gone far enough. If you keep doing them, something bad is gonna happen.
Verb
sourpuss (third-person singular simple present sourpusses, present participle sourpussing, simple past and past participle sourpussed)
- To make a gloomy, sullen or miserable facial expression; to scowl.
- “Oh, stop your sourpussing. We got what you needed.”2006 August 6, Jackson Publick, “Twenty Years to Midnight” (11:16 from the start), in The Venture Bros., season 2, episode 5, spoken by Pirate Captain (Christopher McCulloch)
Forms of sourpuss
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sourpusses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sourpusses |
| present participle | sourpussing |
| past participle | sourpussed |
| past | sourpussed |
Origin of sourpuss
From sour (“bad-tempered”) + puss (“slang for mouth”).
Questions about sourpuss
- What does sourpuss mean?
- Sourpuss means a person who is habitually gloomy, sullen or miserable; a grouch; a scowling person.
- What part of speech is sourpuss?
- Sourpuss can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sourpuss?
- Sourpuss is pronounced /ˈsaʊə(ɹ)ˌpʊs/.
- What is the plural of sourpuss?
- The plural of sourpuss is sourpusses.
Words near sourpuss in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sourpuss (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sourpuss.wav.
Cite this entry: “sourpuss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sourpuss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.