Pooh Bah

[ poo bah ]
/ ˈpu ˌbɑ /

noun (often lowercase)

a person who holds several positions, especially ones that give him or her bureaucratic importance.
a leader, authority, or other important person: one of the pooh bahs of the record industry.
a pompous, self-important person.
Also Pooh-Bah, poobah.

Origin of Pooh Bah

First recorded in 1880–85; after a character in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, who holds all of the high offices of state simultaneously and uses them for personal gain

Example sentences from the Web for pooh-bah

British Dictionary definitions for pooh-bah

Pooh-Bah
/ (ˈpuːˈbɑː) /

noun

a pompous self-important official holding several offices at once and fulfilling none of them

Word Origin for Pooh-Bah

C19: after the character, the Lord-High-Everything-Else, in The Mikado (1885), a light opera by Gilbert and Sullivan

Cultural definitions for pooh-bah

Pooh-Bah

A self-important person of high position and great influence. Pooh-Bah is a character in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado; his title is Lord-High-Everything-Else.