▪ I. hoo, int. and n.
(huː)
A natural exclamation, used to express various feelings, as a call to attract attention, etc. Also, imitative of the sound of an owl, the wind, etc. (See also whoo.)
| 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vii. 141 Hoo, saies a, there's my Cap. 1607 ― Cor. ii. i. 116 Take my Cappe, Iupiter and I thanke thee; hoo, Martius comming home? 1883 J. Brinsley-Richards 7 Years Eton 116, I heard a cry of Hoo! tug! and..had just time to see the wretched little colleger clattering down the staircase. |
b. Often doubled, or otherwise extended.
| 1607 Shakes. Cor. iii. iii. 137 Our enemy is banish'd, he is gone: Hoo, oo. 1851 Carlyle Sterling ii. v. (1872) 127 A dreary pulpit or even conventicle manner; that flattest moaning hoo-hoo of predetermined pathos. 1855 Thackeray Rose & Ring x, I'm hungry for his blood. Hoo—oo, aw! 1884 Daily News 27 Feb. 5/6 One could distinguish the hoo-hoo-oo, the strange war-cry of the [Soudanese] rebels. 1911 T. E. Lawrence Home Lett. (1954) 154 With a mighty firing of guns & pistols, and the hu-hu-hu and violent tahleel of the women [sc. native women in Syria]. |
▪ II. hoo, v.
(huː)
Also Sc. hou.
[f. prec.; see also whoo v. and cf. hue v.2]
intr. To make the sound ‘hoo!’ Hence ˈhooing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| ? a 1800 in Cromek Rem. Nithsd. & Gal. Song (1810) 276 When the gray Howlet has three times hoo'd. 1820 Edin. Mag. May 422/2 The houlet hou't through the riftit rock. 1842 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 157 The hooing and squealing of a child..to keep off the crows. 1865 Cornh. Mag. July 37 The West-countryman says the wind ‘hoois’, and the North-countryman that ‘it soughs’. 1880 Mark Twain Tramp Abroad I. 328 The clamorous hoo-hooing of its cuckoo clock. |
▪ III. hoo
ME. spelling of ho int. and v.; obs. and dial. f. heo pron., she; Sc. f. how; obs. f. who.