pom
part of speech
noun (a pom, poms; Pom, Pommy); short forms: pom-pom, Pomeranian
meaning for a pupil
1) (Australia, New Zealand, slang) A Pom or Pommy is an English person or a British person; it is a joking word but can sound rude. tree →
2) A pom is short for a pom-pom (pompom), a fluffy ball of wool or a cheerleader's bunch of ribbons. tree →
3) A pom is short for a Pomeranian, a small fluffy dog. tree →
sense in the lessons
In Australian and New Zealand talk «Pom» is common in sport banter: «the Poms» are the English cricket or rugby team. It can be friendly teasing or unkind, so be careful. In craft lessons you make poms (pom-poms) from wool and card. In cheerleading, cheerleaders wave poms. Phrases: «whingeing Pom» (a joking insult), «the Poms», «wool pom».
examples
- The Aussies beat the Poms at cricket. (Australia, slang) tree →
- «G'day, mate, you a Pom?» asked the man at the beach. tree →
- My beanie hat has a red pom on top. tree →
- We made woolly poms in art class. tree →
- The cheerleaders shook their poms. tree →
- Our neighbour's pom barks at everything. (short for Pomeranian) tree →
note
Plural «poms». For the nationality it is often written with a capital: Pom, Pommy. It is slang and may offend some English people; do not use it in formal writing. Myth: the story that it stands for «Prisoner of Mother England» is not true; most experts think it came from «pomegranate», rhyming with «immigrant».
In the corpora
- In Perth, Maddie gets called «Pom», Australian for an English person.
- "Pom" is Australian slang, often teasing, for a British person; accent teasing is often curiosity done badly.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pom» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.