hooter

hoot +‎ -er

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhuː.tə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhu.tɚ/, [ˈhu.ɾɚ]

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• Hyphenation: hoot‧er
• Rhymes: -uːtə(ɹ)

hooter (plural hooters)

1. A person who hoots.
2. The horn in a motor vehicle.
3. (British) A siren or steam whistle, especially one in a factory and used to indicate the beginning or the end of a working day or shift.
   • 1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe, page 34:

     Suddenly, far down and beyond the toun there came a screech as the morning grew, a screech like an hungered beast in pain. The hooters were blowing in the Segget Mills.

   • 1945 May and June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 152:

     When the right-away was given, Driver Gibson would give a sonorous blast on Cardean's deep-toned hooter, and amid a flurry of swirling steam the train would move majestically out, with nearly half the city of Carlisle—or so it would appear—as onlookers on the platform.

   • 1946 September and October, “Notes and News: Locomotive Whistle Gift”, in Railway Magazine, page 322:

     A chime whistle, presented to the L.M.S.R. by American model railway enthusiasts in 1939, is installed now as a works hooter at Crewe Works, as its height precludes its use on a British locomotive.

4. (slang) A nose, especially a large one. [from 1950s]
   • 1964, A Hard Day's Night, spoken by Grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell):

     Aye, it may be a joke to you, but it's his nose. He can't help having a hideous great hooter! And his poor little head, trembling under the weight of it!

   • 2014, Vinnie Jones, It's Been Emotional, page 118:

     Somebody yelled, ‘You bit off a bloke’s nose in Ireland.’ The story was that I’d amputated his hooter.

5. An owl.
6. (slang, especially US, usually in the plural) A woman's breast. [from 1970s]
7. (slang) A penis. [from 1990s]
   • 1994, Joe R. Lansdale, Bubba Ho-Tep, page 23:

     There, nestled in one of her gloved palms was a massive, blue-veined hooter with a pus-filled bump on it the size of a pecan. It was his hooter and his pus-filled bump. ¶ “You ole rascal,” she said, and gently lowered his dick between his legs.

   • 2006, Eric Mawson, Oil and Vinegar: A Conscripted Soldier in the Vietnam War‎:

     He called it “Hooterville,” mainly because he was such a fan of Petticoat Junction, and he really enjoyed getting his hooter worked on.

8. (slang) A large cannabis cigarette.
9. (dated) The tiniest amount; a whit or jot.

   Synonym: hoot

   • 1969, Jerzy Peterkiewicz, Green Flows the Bile, page 25:

     G.G. understood that I meant the licence, and said he didn't care a hooter about failing his driving test.

• See also Thesaurus:nose
• See also Thesaurus:breasts
• See also Thesaurus:penis

• “hooter”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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