Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Puss |
PussNoun1. Obscene terms for female genitals. 2. Informal terms. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "puss" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Etymology: Puss \Puss\ (p[.u]s), noun. [Compare to Dutch poes, Irish Gaelic pus.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Puss A cat, hare, or rabbit. (Irish, pus, a cat.) It is said that the word, applied to a hare or rabbit, is from the Latin lepus, Frenchified into le pus. True or not, the pun may pass muster. "Oh, puss, it bodes thee dire disgrace, When I defy thee to the race, Come, `tis a bet; nay, no denial, I'll lay my shell upon the trial." The Hare and the Tortoise. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
PUSS | English | Pull-up shallow water seismograph | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: PussSynonyms: cunt (n), kitty (n), kitty-cat (n), pussy (n), pussycat (n), slit (n), snatch (n), twat (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Animal | Feline, puss, grimalkin; gib cat, tom cat. |
Interchange | Verb: interchange, exchange, counterchange; bandy, transpose, shuffle, change bands, swap, permute, reciprocate, commute; give and take, return the compliment; play at puss in the corner,Verb: interchange, exchange, counterchange; bandy, transpose, shuffle, change bands, swap, permute, reciprocate, commute; give and take, return the compliment; play at puss in the corner, play at battledore and shuttlecock; retaliate; requite. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Puss |
| Specialty definitions using "puss": Hunting of the Hare ♦ Nursery Tales ♦ Puss in Boots. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "puss": Pussy. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Puss" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Manx (mug), Norwegian (hoax), Swedish (kiss, puddle). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | A little puss, little dick (Saving Silverman; writing credit: Hank Nelken; Greg DePaul) Hey, Puss. Did she even really exist (The Sopranos; writing credit: Isabel Clara-Simo; Ramón De España) | |
Lyrics | Any stank puss make my long john pause (Southern Hospitality; performing artist: Ludacris) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Puss & kram (1967) Playful Puss (1953) Puss Cafe (1950) Saturday Evening Puss (1950) Polka-Dot Puss (1949) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | While the family's away or "Here, Puss, here, Tige". Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Orange Sour Puss" by Cellulaer Dweller Commentary: "Orange sour puss cat scowls at the camera." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Tangled Tale | Carroll, Lewis | Eat your bird, Puss, for you will get nothing from me |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Puss" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Puss" is used about 51 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 51 | 47,619 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "puss": puss in boots ♦ puss in the corner ♦ puss moth ♦ puss puss! ♦ sea puss. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "puss": Puss-in-boots, puss-puss. | |
Ending with "puss": puss-puss, sea-puss, te-roe-puss. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
puss | 648 | pink puss | 11 |
puss in boot | 380 | girl puss | 10 |
hairy puss | 37 | puss trimed | 9 |
wet puss | 30 | jpg puss | 9 |
puss n boot | 28 | caterpillar puss | 9 |
black puss | 24 | angel puss | 9 |
teen puss | 23 | asian puss | 8 |
shaved puss | 22 | big puss | 8 |
free puss pic | 20 | lesbian puss | 8 |
hot puss | 19 | puss snaggle | 7 |
puss sour | 17 | bikini puss | 7 |
puss rate | 16 | eating puss | 7 |
free puss | 14 | free hairy puss | 6 |
cookie puss | 14 | bald puss | 5 |
glamour puss | 12 | blonde puss | 5 |
puss tight | 12 | lick puss | 5 |
pic puss | 12 | puss tonyas | 5 |
puss and boot | 11 | puss sex | 4 |
puss young | 11 | index jpg puss | 4 |
closeup puss | 11 | nipple puss | 4 |
boot in puss script | 4 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "puss"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | vajzë (babe, chicken, child, colleen, damsel, daughter, demoiselle, female, gal, girl, girlie, lass, lassie, maid, maiden, Miss, petticoat, unmarried girl, wench), mace (cat, grimalkin, pussycat). (various references) | |
Arabic | هرة (kitty, poon, she-cat), هر (cat, gib, growl, grumble, tomcat), قط (cat, never, not ever, tomcat), سنور. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | сурат (pan), уста (kisser, mouth, mug, osculum, potato trap, potato-box, rattletrap, rat-trap, throat, trap, yap), котка (cat, tabby), кокетка (coquette, flirt, jilt, kitten, minx), мутра (dial, figurehead, map, mug, pan), маца (pussycat), заек (cony, hare, rabbit, rookie), лице (appearance, bod, countenance, face, features, figurehead, front, front view, frontage, individual, kisser, map, person, persona, personage, physiognomy, sentry, visage), писана (pussycat), дяволито момиче. (various references) | |
Czech | koèka (bird, cat, grimalkin), koèièka (Catkin, pussycat). (various references) | |
Farsi | پیشی (Antecedent, Kitty), چهره (Face, Feature, Visage), چرک (Dingy, Dirt, Dirty, Frowzy, Guck, Impure, Lymph, Pus, Slag, Sordid, Squawk), لب (Bank, Brink, Cheek, Lip, Nucleus), گربه (Cat, Grimalkin), زن جوان (Dell, Lass), دهان (Gob, Jib, Mug, Slobber, Throat), دخترک (Chit, Doll). (various references) | |
Finnish | mirri. (various references) | |
French | minou (pussycat), minette, minet, chat. (various references) | |
German | muschi, miezekatze (pussy-cat), mieze (baby, broad, chick, chicken, crumpet, female cat, moggy), Miezchen, miez. (various references) | |
Greek | γάτα (cat, mouser), γατούλα (kitty), μούτρο (face, mug), πρόσωπο (face, figure, party, person, personage, role, visage), ψιψίνα (kitty). (various references) | |
Hungarian | cica (kit, kitten, kitty, pussycat). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kucing (cat). (various references) | |
Italian | micio (pussycat, tomcat). (various references) | |
Manx | kayt (cat, feline). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | usspay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | tigre (tiger), moça brincalhona, lebre (hare), bichano (kitten). (various references) | |
Romanian | pisicã (cat, queen), femeie cochetã, fatã (child, chit, damsel, daughter, girl, lass, lassie, maid, maiden, Miss, skirt, virgin), drãguţã (baby, beloved, sweetheart). (various references) | |
Russian | кошечка (pussy cat, pussy-cat), заяц (gate crasher, hare, jack rabbit, rabbit, stowaway), девушка (a bit of muslin, bint, colleen, demoiselle, dish, gal, girl, lady, lass, lassie, maid, maiden, quean, wench). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | usta (gob, kisser, mouth, muzzle, orifice, trap), mačka (cat), lice (character, countenance, face, front, kisser, pan, person, visage). (various references) | |
Spanish | cara (air, appearance, brow, dial, façade, face, head, inland, look, pane, Phiz, side). (various references) | |
Swedish | nylle (dial, kisser, Phiz), mus (mouse), kisse (pussycat), jösse. (various references) | |
Thai | ใบหน้า (คำสแลง), แมว (cat, moggie, moggy), ผู้หญิงหรือเด็กผู้หญิง. (various references) | |
Turkish | pisi (cat, kitty), yaban tavşanı, yüz (c, cast of features, countenance, dial, face, facial, front, frontispiece, hecto-, hundred, kisser, mien, obverse, one hundred, Phiz, physiognomy, Snoot, visage), surat (countenance, court card, dial, face, kisser, map, mien, pan, Phiz, Snoot), kedi (cat, feline, pussycat), genç kız (bobbysoxer, damsel, maiden, young lady). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | кішечка (pussycat), кокетка (coquette, flirt, jilt, minx), киця (pussycat), заєць (hare, rabbit). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | con bé (jade, wretch), cái mõm (rat-trap). (various references) | |
Welsh | titw. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Irish | 1000-Modern | pus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "puss": pusses, pussier, pussies, pussiest, pussley, pussleys, pusslies, pusslike, pussly, pussycat, pussycats, pussyfoot, pussyfooted, pussyfooter, pussyfooters, pussyfooting, pussyfoots, pussytoes. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "puss": sourpuss. (additional references) | |
Words containing "puss": sourpusses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Puss" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ipsus, mpus, Passk, pasz, pessi, Pessl, Phus, Phusis, Possl, Pruss, pss, psso, psst, psuc, psus, ptss, puds, pues, pums, Pusa, Pusca, Pusd, puse, puses, pussa, pusse, pussi, Pussot, pust, pusy, putsz, Puys, puz, puzo, puzz, Tpus, uss, ussf, wuss, zuss. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: sups. | |
| Words within the letters "p-s-s-u" | |
-1 letter: pus, sup, ups. | |
-2 letters: up, us. | |
| Words containing the letters "p-s-s-u" | |
+1 letter: cusps, puses, scups, soups, spuds, spues, spurs, sumps, supes. | |
+2 letters: cuspis, lapsus, opuses, passus, pauses, pluses, possum, pseuds, pulses, purses, pushes, pusses, pussly, scaups, sculps, setups, sirups, situps, slumps, slurps, spouse, spouts, sprues, sprugs, spumes, spunks, spurns, spurts, stoups, stumps, stupas, stupes, sunups, supers, syrups, tossup, upases, upsets, uptoss, usurps. | |
+3 letters: catsups, cuspids, dustups, espouse, fusspot, gypsums, lupuses, opossum, outpass, pausers, percuss, peruses, petasus, plushes, plusses, poseurs, possums, poussie, prussic, pseudos, puisnes, pulsars, pulsers, purisms, purists, pursers, pursues, pushers, pushups, pusleys, pussier, pussies, pussley, sannups, sapours, sculpts, scyphus, sendups, septums, shlumps, slipups, smashup, soursop, spinous, spousal, spoused, spouses, sprouts, spruces, spumous, spurges, stupids, stupors, sulphas, sunspot, supines, suppers, supples, suppose, surpass, surplus, suspect, suspend, suspire, tossups, unships, unsnaps, unsteps, unstops, upcasts, uprises, upsends, upshots, upsides, upsoars, upsteps, upstirs, washups. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Abbreviations 16. Acronyms | 17. Derivations 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
