1868 Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) 20 Oct. Now we do not mean to put up a poor mouth, or to level complaints against business men.

1904 Washington Post 19 June ii. 3/5 You let all the real chances in life slip through your fingers, and then when you have made a failure of life you sit up and cry poor mouth.

1940 E. W. Bakke Citizens without Work xii. 296 The longer this form of assistance [sc. unemployment compensation] can be extended, the fewer workers will be compelled to develop the ability to ‘talk poor mouth’.

1965 N.Y. Times 29 July 16 It is hard to talk poor mouth just after the papers have written of your daughter's coming-out party for 2,000 guests.

1979 Weekend Austral. 24 Feb. 32 The board turned its back on half a million dollars a year and now it is crying poormouth.

2001 U.S. News & World Rep. 26 Nov. 10/2 It is difficult for the government to play poor-mouth when Congress is on pace to set a new record in pork-barrel spending.

1884 Sunday Mag. Sept. 560/2 And what with their perpetual poor mouth about misfortunes, and their debts and so forth, they thought it would not do to get some above board.

1893 Indiana (Pa.) County Gaz. 15 Nov. 4/2 (headline) Poor-mouth journalism.

1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 22 Aug. v. 5/1 I hate to make what they call my poor-mouth report every year. But we've got to enhance our financial condition without lowering the office of commissioner.

1930 H. W. Shoemaker 1300 Old Time Words 46 Poor-mouth, to discant on one's poverty.

1938 R. E. Bass in B. A. Botkin Treasury Southern Folklore (1949) iii. i. 458 This fellow..began to poor mouth 'bout hard times and 'lowed as to how he couldn't even buy a peach seed, let alone a sprout.

1967 Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Add. Poor mouth, to plead poverty as a defense or excuse.

1989 Internat. Business Week 21 Aug. 27/2 With a bigger budget, the CFTC could stop poor-mouthing, start working on high-impact cases, and rightly leave the cloak-and-dagger tactics to the FBI.

2003 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Little Rock, Arkansas) (Nexis) 24 Oct. 20 The Germans are poormouthing, too, claiming they can't give more than the $224 million they've already pledged.

1948 Los Angeles Times 15 Dec. iv. 4/5 Wooden poor-mouthed that his Bruins were all new except Guard George Stanich.

1953 Los Angeles Times 1 Sept. iv. 1/1 It has been suggested by some that Red ‘poor-mouthed’ his squads to the point of getting them down-rated and then went ahead to have good seasons.

1953 Washington Post 6 Nov. 23/1 The smarter professionals have been accustomed to poor-mouthing all over the place, as reinsurance against defeat.

1961 J. Steinbeck Winter of our Discontent xiv. 232 Don't let him poor-mouth you.

1998 Sierra Mar.–Apr. 38/2 For years U.S. automakers have poor-mouthed their ability to raise the fuel-efficiency of their auto fleets.