▪ I. whooping, vbl. n.
(ˈhuːpɪŋ, ˈhw-)
[f. whoop v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb whoop. (Cf. hooping vbl. n.2)
| ? 1605 Drayton Poems Lyr. & Past., Man in Moone I 1, With guilty conscience..That oft they start at whooping of an owle. 1657 G. Thornley Daphnis & Chloe 139 The clattering of the Oars, the whooping of the Sea-men. 1842 Tennyson St. Sim. Styl. 32 The whoopings of the owl. 1854 Dickens Hard T. ii. i, The whooping of boys, the barking of dogs. |
▪ II. ˈwhooping, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
a. That whoops; esp. in whooping crane, the large white crane of N. America, Grus americana; whooping swan = whooper b. b. Of a sound or cry: Of the nature of a whoop. (Cf. hooping ppl. a.2)
| 1757 Phil. Trans. LI. 78 An hideous whooping noise, like that of a child in a chin-cough. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 293 Suspicion, that he was sent to shoot me..as soon as he heard the whooping death-signal. 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 433 The great and beautiful whooping crane. 1731, 1837 Whooping crane [see hooping ppl. a.2]. 1839 Longfellow Wreck of Hesperus xvii, A whooping billow swept the crew Like icicles from her deck. 1852 Macgillivray Brit. Birds IV. 659 Cygnus musicus. The Whooping Swan. 1879 N. H. Bishop Four Months in Sneak-Box 108 Whooping-cranes..in little flocks, dotted the grassy prairies. 1895 Jas. Prior Renie xix, A band of whistling, whooping lads playing at stalky. 1938 M. K. Rawlings Yearling x. 94 He pointed. ‘The whoopin' cranes is dancin'.’ 1976 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 7 May 10/6 A scraggly-looking whooping crane chick, hatched this week at the government wildlife centre here. |
c. fig. Unusually large; whopping; also, very noisy, wild, uproarious. Also as quasi-adv., hugely, immensely. slang (chiefly U.S.).
| 1866 ‘Mark Twain’ Let. 30 July (1917) I. v. 115 The first few days we came at a whooping gait. 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands vii. 88 Odgson..was then lyin' in ther City cells, whoopin' delirious. 1939 G. Ade Let. 7 June (1973) 211 Let's make each one of these parties a whooping success. 1969 Fabian & Byrne Groupie (1970) xiii. 94 They unstrap me and shoot two whooping great penicillin injections into my backside. |