Hoon

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /huːn/
• Rhymes: -uːn

Uncertain origin. Pimp sense from early 20th c.

Full definition of hoon

Noun

1. (Australia, slang, dated) A pimp.
• 2010, Adam Shand, The Skull: Informers, Hit Men and Australia's Toughest Cop, page 86,When the girls were sick, the hoons would beat the shit out of them and put them back on the street.
2. (Australia, slang) A lout.
3. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) One who drives excessively quickly, loudly or irresponsibly; a street drag racer often driving heavily customized cars.
• 2009, Victoria Police Home Page, State of Victoria,Police have impounded an average of 10 cars a day since hoon laws were introduced by the State Government in June 2006.
• 2009, Damien Broderick, Rory Barnes, I'm Dying Here, page 29,The hoons piled out of the wreck brimming with righteous road rage, and were setlling to the task of beating the shit out of Wozza, Mutton and the hapless wheelman when they discovered the plastic bag.

Derived terms

• hoonish

Verb

1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) To drive excessively quickly, loudly or irresponsibly.

From Chinese.

Noun

1. (dated) A unit of weight, used to measure opium in British-controlled China.
• 1860, James Aberigh Mackay, From London to Lucknow, Volume 2, page 553,Their average consumption was six hoons. The greatest daily consumption by one man was fifteen hoons ; the smallest, two. The average number of years they had been addicted to the smoking of opium was seven years and some odd months.
• 2005, Derek Mackay, Eastern Customs: The Customs Service in British Malaya and the Hunt for Opium, page 141,The average smoker used only four hoons, leaving him 36 hoons, nearly half an ounce, to sell on the black market.

Anagrams

• oh no