pfft.

n.  the sound of blowing air.

<The little nose barely breaks the surface of the water; you hear a ‘pfft’ as it sprays water and air.  Then you see the creature itself—a huge gray mass with a walruslike body that tapers to a beaverlike tail.  —Jeff Campbell, describing the West Indian manatee in Lonely Planet: USA.> <He brushed the tangles of her hair away from his face, making little pfft! noises that made her want to laugh.  —Diana Gabaldon, Drums of Autumn.>

n.  the sound of brushing off someone or something.

<She looks at Ian, makes a loud pfft! sound and waves him away like a bad odour.  —Alison Wearing, Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey.>

n.  the sound of dissident migrant workers being sent back to their homeland.

<If they complain, or join a union, or do anything but work their ass off, pfft!  He slams them back to Mexico.  —Susan Ferriss, The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.>

n.  the sound of gases exploding from a body ravaged by flesh-eating disease.

<So there’s a disease up there, eh?  Makes AIDS look like a sniffle, eh?  You turn into soup, eh?  You explode, eh?  Pfft!—coming out of every hole, is that the story?  —Richard Preston, The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story.>

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