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单词 po-faced
释义

Definition of po-faced in English:

po-faced

adjective ˈpəʊfeɪstˈpoʊfeɪst
British
  • Humourless and disapproving.

    don't be so po-faced about everything
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Normally po-faced and formal, these parties give the girls their only chance of social interaction, which for them means dancing like mad and giggling at the ineptitude of their partners.
    • So it goes with the po-faced and utterly humourless 911.
    • The downside is that all we have here is a very long, very po-faced, mystic, pseudo-religious battle between our old mates good and evil.
    • That's disappeared in recent years - the Dalton films were very po-faced and they've had trouble shaking that seriousness off.
    • Any social commentary is mostly of the exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin variety and is ultimately po-faced and humourless.
    • We imposed it, in our po-faced, disciplinarian way, on our colonial subjects around the world, and they loved it so much that they are still using it, long after we've gone.
    • While our po-faced American cousins talk in learned terms of David's ‘high art’, we taunt the illusionist with bacon sandwiches and try to cut off his water supply.
    • What a depressing lack of sense too from this increasingly po-faced Government, which displayed once more its desire to interfere, to have something to say about everything.
    • Whilst it could be argued that it is po-faced to talk about truth in the biography of a fictional character, the counter-argument is that the constant toying with fiction and fact is ultimately frustrating.
    • They can be slightly po-faced affairs and often there will be slightly mental or self-obsessed people in the audience who ask strange or self-aggrandising questions.
    • Watching a po-faced segment where a schoolgirl is falsely led to believe her parents have died from heroin abuse in an attempt to ward her off drugs elicits a mixed response.
    • These East Africans have a healthy, smart, informed scepticism and the media manages to remain admirably po-faced when dealing with delicate political issues.
    • It's not just the tedium of the job - literally a daily grind, as they mash packets of powder into useable paint - it's the po-faced seriousness with which everyone around them gets on with things.
    • It takes that understanding and throws it back in our faces, challenging us to participate in what is really a sustained assault on the cult of po-faced victimology and its politically correct excesses.
    • It assumes a cultural context where prejudices such as homophobia are understood, and where laughter becomes a weapon to be used against them, as well as against the po-faced extremes of political correctness.
    • In the British press at least, there is a tradition of publishing spoof articles in as po-faced a fashion as possible on April 1st and seeing how many people fall for them.
    • Would I have been too po-faced to fancy them at 18?
    • It is all probably sensible advice, but if you are an anxious parent you will be able to look after your kids already, and if you don't care then a po-faced web site isn't going to make a difference.
    • The thing that really grates, though, is the po-faced sermonising on global warming and heavy-handed attempts to make Serious Points about Serious Issues.
    • Returning to his point about some punk bands being too po-faced to pogo or even crack a smile, ironically he reckons that the punk scene could do with unfolding its arms and letting its hair down.
    Synonyms
    demure, proper, prim and proper, formal, stuffy, strait-laced, prudish

Origin

1930s: perhaps from po, influenced by poker-faced.

  • The po in po-faced, ‘humourless and disapproving’, probably comes from the use of po to mean ‘chamber pot’, though it might also have been influenced by the exclamation ‘poh!’, used to reject something contemptuously. In any event, the phrase is likely to be modelled on the expression poker-faced (early 20th century). This comes from the need to keep a deadpan face when playing poker. The game, first recorded in the 1830s in the USA probably gets its name from the German word pochen ‘to brag’.

Rhymes

barefaced, baste, boldfaced, chaste, haste, lambaste, paste, red-faced, self-faced, shamefaced, smooth-faced, strait-laced, taste, unplaced, untraced, waist, waste
 
 

Definition of po-faced in US English:

po-faced

adjectiveˈpōfāstˈpoʊfeɪst
British
  • Humorless and disapproving.

    don't be so po-faced about everything
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Normally po-faced and formal, these parties give the girls their only chance of social interaction, which for them means dancing like mad and giggling at the ineptitude of their partners.
    • The thing that really grates, though, is the po-faced sermonising on global warming and heavy-handed attempts to make Serious Points about Serious Issues.
    • We imposed it, in our po-faced, disciplinarian way, on our colonial subjects around the world, and they loved it so much that they are still using it, long after we've gone.
    • Any social commentary is mostly of the exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin variety and is ultimately po-faced and humourless.
    • While our po-faced American cousins talk in learned terms of David's ‘high art’, we taunt the illusionist with bacon sandwiches and try to cut off his water supply.
    • These East Africans have a healthy, smart, informed scepticism and the media manages to remain admirably po-faced when dealing with delicate political issues.
    • So it goes with the po-faced and utterly humourless 911.
    • It is all probably sensible advice, but if you are an anxious parent you will be able to look after your kids already, and if you don't care then a po-faced web site isn't going to make a difference.
    • Watching a po-faced segment where a schoolgirl is falsely led to believe her parents have died from heroin abuse in an attempt to ward her off drugs elicits a mixed response.
    • Would I have been too po-faced to fancy them at 18?
    • That's disappeared in recent years - the Dalton films were very po-faced and they've had trouble shaking that seriousness off.
    • It assumes a cultural context where prejudices such as homophobia are understood, and where laughter becomes a weapon to be used against them, as well as against the po-faced extremes of political correctness.
    • In the British press at least, there is a tradition of publishing spoof articles in as po-faced a fashion as possible on April 1st and seeing how many people fall for them.
    • It takes that understanding and throws it back in our faces, challenging us to participate in what is really a sustained assault on the cult of po-faced victimology and its politically correct excesses.
    • It's not just the tedium of the job - literally a daily grind, as they mash packets of powder into useable paint - it's the po-faced seriousness with which everyone around them gets on with things.
    • The downside is that all we have here is a very long, very po-faced, mystic, pseudo-religious battle between our old mates good and evil.
    • Whilst it could be argued that it is po-faced to talk about truth in the biography of a fictional character, the counter-argument is that the constant toying with fiction and fact is ultimately frustrating.
    • Returning to his point about some punk bands being too po-faced to pogo or even crack a smile, ironically he reckons that the punk scene could do with unfolding its arms and letting its hair down.
    • They can be slightly po-faced affairs and often there will be slightly mental or self-obsessed people in the audience who ask strange or self-aggrandising questions.
    • What a depressing lack of sense too from this increasingly po-faced Government, which displayed once more its desire to interfere, to have something to say about everything.
    Synonyms
    demure, proper, prim and proper, formal, stuffy, strait-laced, prudish

Origin

1930s: perhaps from po, influenced by poker-faced.

 
 
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更新时间:2024/12/23 12:18:48