# poop

Pronunciation: say "POOP" /ˈpup/

## Noun

1. Solid waste matter passed from the body; feces, or an act of passing it. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Solid waste that comes out of your body, or the act of pushing it out.
   - _Signs in the park remind owners to bag their dogs' poop._
   - _The vet asked us to bring in a sample of the puppy's poop._
3. The raised deck at the stern of a ship (the poop deck), or the rear part of the ship itself.
   - Simple: The raised deck at the back of a ship.
   - _The officers paced the poop as the frigate came about._
   - _From the poop, the helmsman could see the whole length of the ship._
5. Information or facts, especially inside or up-to-date details, often about how a machine or process works. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Useful facts or inside information about something, often about a machine or how a job is done.
   - _Ask Joe; he's got the straight poop on the new printing press._
   - _A friend in shipping gave her the inside poop on how the new system would work._
6. A person who is stupid or ineffectual. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A person who is stupid or not able to get things done.
   - _The committee was run by a pompous poop who couldn't make a decision to save his life._
   - _A handful of tired old poops sat on the board and approved whatever they were handed._

## Verb

2. To pass solid waste from the body, sometimes accidentally into one's clothes (poop oneself). *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To push solid waste out of your body.
   - _Some cats won't poop if the litter box is dirty._
   - _The horse pooped just as the bride stepped out of the carriage._
4. To become exhausted and give up (usually poop out), or to tire someone out completely. *(colloquial, US, Canada)*
   - Simple: To get so tired that you stop, or to make someone very tired.
   - _Our old dog tends to poop out after about a mile, so we keep the walks short._
   - _The team pooped out in the fourth quarter and lost by twenty._

## Interjection

7. A mild, childish stand-in for a curse, used to express annoyed disappointment. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A soft, childish word said instead of a rude one when something disappoints you.
   - _Poop. They're sold out of the chocolate ones again._
   - _We missed the train by thirty seconds. Poop._

## Verb

8. To give a quick toot on a horn. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To blow a horn for a short moment.
9. To release gas from the bowels; to break wind. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To let out gas from the body through the bottom.

## Noun

10. A poppyhead finial, the kind seen on church pews and occasionally on other benches. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A decoration on the top of a church bench, and sometimes of other benches.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Ellipsis of YouTube poop: a surreal comic video made by chopping up and remixing existing clips.
- (verb) Of a wave, to break over the stern of a vessel; of a vessel, to take a wave over its stern.
- (noun) The noise heard when a steam engine whistles, usually at a low pitch.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 7–9** — Where this word comes from is uncertain. It may come from Middle English poupen, a verb for making a gulping noise while drinking, for blowing a horn, or for tooting. Compare Dutch poepen ("to defecate") and German Low German pupen ("to fart"). Another possibility is that it represents poo said with the mouth snapping shut at the end.
**Meaning 5** — The earliest record of this meaning is from 1941, when World War II soldiers used the slang term poop sheet ("up-to-date information"). No one is sure where that term came from, though it may allude to toilet paper (see etymology 1).
**Meaning 4** — Of uncertain origin, perhaps imitative of a sound.
**Meaning 3** — Latin puppis gave Vulgar Latin *puppa, then Italian poppa, then Old French pope, poupe, and finally Middle English poupe, pope. Every one of these meant "stern of a ship."
**Meaning 6** — Of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortening of nincompoop.
**Meaning 10** — Likely from French poupe; see poppyhead.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/poop (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).