Tuesday, June 23, 2009

pule

pule \PYOOL\, intransitive verb:

To whimper; to whine.

The first lady initially flourished as a wronged wife precisely because she endured her humiliation so stoically; she did not whine or pule or treat her pain as license to behave badly.
-- Michelle Cottle, "God Almighty", New Republic, September 6, 1999
But my self-absorbed fretting and puling always come to an abrupt end with some surprise gift.
-- Thomas J. McCarthy, "Stay-at-Home Dad", America, February 26, 2000

Pule is perhaps from French piauler, "to whine, to pule," ultimately of imitative origin.

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