An expression of impatience or contempt, nearly obs. in England.
1825. Pshaw, it is a common trick of my countrymen—I know that, very well;—a very common trick, when they have any object in view—to overreach other people, by their simplicity.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ i. 122.
1837. ‘Pshaw!’ says some reader of this diary, ‘what an offence to taste!’… ‘Pshaw, Henry!’ replied he, with a tint of roseate spreading over his features, ‘what eternal nonsense!’—Knick. Mag., ix. 153, 158–9 (Feb.).
1845. Oh, ’shaw, ’taint gwine to rain, no how—and I’m all fixed.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Chronicles of Pineville,’ p. 165 (Phila.).
1846. She hollered fur hir fiddler, but oh, shaw! he coudent do hir a bit of good.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 89.
1846. Shaw, now, Brooks, don’t press upon a body in this uncivil way.—Id., p. 147.
1846. [At last they said]: Pshaw! there’s going to be no fight after all.—Mr. Miller of N.J., U.S. Senate, March 26: Cong. Globe, p. 569, Appendix.
1848. Talk of a locomotive at full speed, pshaw! That is a tortoise to a mad steer. The ‘critter’ took a bee line for home.—Durivage and Burnham, ‘Stray Subjects,’ p. 78.
1850. P’shaw, gal! your wits are turned, through going to school.—Knick. Mag., xxxvi. 216 (Sept.).
1856. I shall fold my arms with tranquillity, and say either “C’est fini,” or “Oh shaw, I know’d it!”—G. H. Derby (‘John Phœnix’), ‘Phœnixiana,’ p. 107.
1857. Psha! nonsense! will nothing satisfy you?—Knick. Mag., xlix. 499 (May).
1862. See GRASS WIDOW.
