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(onomatopoeia) A sound, usually made with a closed mouth pouting, indicating annoyance, indignation, disapproval, doubt, or sighing. quotations examples
`Beauty is too rare upon it. Give me no thanks, who am made happy by thy coming.' `Humph! old fellow,' said Leo aside to me in English, `the lady is very civil.'
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
"There!" panted Pollyanna, hastily plucking a pink from a vase near by and tucking it into the dark hair where it would give the best effect. "Now I reckon we're ready to be looked at!" And she held out the mirror in triumph."Humph!" grunted the sick woman, eyeing her reflection severely. "I like red pinks better than pink ones; but then, it'll fade, anyhow, before night, so what's the difference!"
1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page
third-person singular simple present humphs, present participle humphing, simple past and past participle humphed
(intransitive) To utter "humph!" in doubt or disapproval. examples