whoop

From Middle English whopen, whowpen, howpen, houpen (“to whoop, cry out”), partially from Old French houper, hopper, houpper (“to shout”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwōpan, from Proto-Germanic *hwōpaną (“to boast, threaten”) (compare Gothic 𐍈𐍉𐍀𐌰𐌽 (ƕōpan, “to boast”), Old English hwōpan (“to threaten”)); and partially from Middle English wop (“weeping, lamentation”), from Old English wōp (“cry, outcry, shrieking, weeping, lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōp, from Proto-Germanic *wōpaz (“shout, cry, wail”) (compare Old Norse ópa (“to cry, scream, shout”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wōpjan, “to cry out”)).

• hoop, howp

• enPR: wo͞op, hwo͞op, IPA^(key): /wuːp/, /ʍuːp/ or enPR: ho͞op, IPA^(key): /huːp/
• Rhymes: -uːp
• Homophone: hoop (for one pronunciation of the noun and the associated intransitive verb)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

whoop (plural whoops)

1. A loud, eager cry, usually of joy.
   • 1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 30:

     [A] great whoop of victory sounded as finally they carried the fish up the beach.

2. A gasp, characteristic of whooping cough.
3. A bump on a racetrack.

   Synonym of whoop-de-doo

   • 2006, Steve Casper, ATVs: Everything You Need to Know, page 104:

     The key to jamming through the whoops is to keep your weight to the back of the quad […] and keep the front wheels high […]

   • 2009, Lee Klancher, Kevin Cameron, Motorcycle Dream Garages, page 184:

     The “98 MPH” sign used to be on a set of particularly vicious whoops at one of John's favorite racetracks.

whoop (third-person singular simple present whoops, present participle whooping, simple past and past participle whooped)

1. (intransitive) To make a whoop.
   • 1815, William Wordsworth, Beggars:

     each whooping with a merry shout

   • 1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals:

     When naught was heard but now and then the howl / Of some vile cur, or whooping of the owl.

2. (transitive) To shout, to yell.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.

3. To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To insult with shouts; to chase with derision.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

     And suffered me by the voice of slaves to be / Whooped out of Rome.

• See also Thesaurus:shout

• whoop it up

From a traditional African American and Southern US pronunciation of whip.

• whup

• enPR: wo͝op, hwo͝op, IPA^(key): /wʊp/, /ʍʊp/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

whoop (third-person singular simple present whoops, present participle whooping, simple past and past participle whooped)

1. (transitive, informal) To beat, to strike.
2. (transitive, informal) To defeat thoroughly.

• whoop ass
• open a can of whoop ass

• whoop-whoop
• whoopee
• whoops