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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

puss.

A cat.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pʊs//pʉs/Northern-Ireland, Scotland

  1. A cat.

    countable · informal · often · term-of-address · uncountable
    Our local theatre is showing Puss in Boots.
    Come here, puss! I've got some milk for you.

  2. A girl or young woman, or any child.

    countable · dated · endearing · uncountable

  3. A hare.

    countable · dated · uncountable

  4. The vulva (female genitalia).

    countable · slang · uncountable · vulgar

  5. Sex with a woman.

    metonymically · slang · uncountable · vulgar

  6. A coward; a wuss; someone who is unable to stand up for themselves.

    Canada · US · countable · slang · uncountable · vulgar
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/pʊs//pʉs/Northern-Ireland, Scotland

  1. The mouth.

    slang
    Shut your puss before I shut it for you.

  2. The face.

    slang
    She gave him a slap in the puss.
Where this word comes from

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”).

noun/pʊs//pʉs/Northern-Ireland, Scotland

  1. Alternative spelling of pus.

    alt-of · alternative · uncountable
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.