Other forms: pouting, pouts
To pout is to push your lips out to show that you are displeased. The face a child makes on being told no.
It is a small sulky expression rather than an angry one, and the word hints that the sulk is not entirely serious. Photography added a second use, since pouting at a camera is a pose rather than a mood. As a noun, a pout is the expression itself. English divides this ground finely: sulk is the mood, pout is the mouth, and scowl is the eyebrows.
1verbpoutTo push out the lips to show displeasure.
“She pouted and turned away.”
2nounexpressionThe expression made by pushing the lips out.
“He answered with a pout.”
Proto-Indo-European
*bu- — to swell
Proto-Germanic
*pūto — swollen
Middle English
pouten
English, today
pout
From Middle English pouten, probably from Scandinavian (compare Norwegian pute (“pillow, cushion”), dial. Swedish puta (“to be puffed out”), Danish pude (“pillow, cushion”)), from Proto-Germanic pūto (“swollen”) (compare English eelpout, Dutch puit, Low German puddig (“inflated”)), from Proto-Indo-European bu- (“to swell”) (compare Sanskrit बुद्बुद (“bubble”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 13 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word