huzzah

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Likely originally a hoisting cry, possibly related to hoise. Compare possibly cognate Swedish hissa (“to hoist; huzzah”), Catalan hissar (“to hoist”) and French Ho, hisse! (“Hey, hoist!”). First attested in the 1570s.

"Huzzah" on a sign at a Fourth of July celebration

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /həˈzɑː/
    Rhymes: -ɑː
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)

Interjection

huzzah

  1. (nautical, dated) Used as a call for coordinated physical effort, as in hoisting.
  2. (literary, poetic, archaic, sometimes humorous) Used as a cheer indicating exaltation, enjoyment or approval.

Synonyms

Noun

huzzah (plural huzzahs)

  1. A cheer often associated with sailors, shouted by a group in praise of a thing or event.

Verb

huzzah (third-person singular simple present huzzahs, present participle huzzahing, simple past and past participle huzzahed)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To cheer (someone or something) with a huzzah sound.
    • 1710 October 2 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Whig-Examiner: No. 2. Thursday, September 21. [1710.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC, page 339:
      Towns have been taken, and battles have been won; the mob has huzza'd round bonefires, the Stentor of the chappel has ſtrained his throat in the gallery, and the Stentor of S——m has deafned his audience from the pulpit.
    • 1891, Littell’s Living Age, volume 191, page 260:
      In the course of his table-talk, during the French war, the ex-chancellor once remarked that, though the Prussian people huzza'd and beclapped their great Frederick when alive, […]

Further reading
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