whoo
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: wo͞o, IPA(key): /wuː/
Audio (Southern England) (file) Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -uː
- Homophones: woo (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Interjection
whoo
- An expression of delight and excitement.
- The wailing cry of a ghost.
- 1949, Robertson Davies, The table talk of Samuel Marchbanks:
- "You are mistaken; I am a ghost; whoo!" said I, choking back my rage.
- 1996, R A Noonan, Wild ghost chase:
- Then he held up his hands and let out a weak ghost-howl. "Whoo?" he moaned, in a tiny voice.
- The cry of an owl
Synonyms
- (expression of delight): wahoo, whoopee, yay, yippee
- (cry of an owl): tuwhit tuwhoo
Verb
whoo (third-person singular simple present whoos, present participle whooing, simple past and past participle whooed)
- To make a whoo sound, of delight, whistling, or of an owl etc.
- 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Part 6:
- "Upon my honour!" cried he, "there was never before such a beautiful thing in Nature or Art as you look, 'Cousin' Tess ('Cousin' had a faint ring of mockery). I have been watching you from over the wall—sitting like Im-patience on a monument, and pouting up that pretty red mouth to whistling shape, and whooing and whooing, and privately swearing, and never being able to produce a note. Why, you are quite cross because you can't do it."
See also
Middle English
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