Hoot
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -uËt
Full definition of hoot
Noun
hoot
(plural hoots)- A derisive cry or shout.
- The cry of an owl.
- (US, slang) A fun event or person. (See hootenanny)
- A small particle
- 1878, John Hanson Beadle, Western Wilds, and the Men who Redeem Them, page 611, Jones Brothers, 1878Well, it was Sunday morning, and the wheat nothing like ripe; but it was a chance, and I got onto my reaper and banged down every hoot of it before Monday night.
Usage notes
(small particle) The term is nearly always encountered in a negative sense in such phrases as don't care a hoot or don't give two hoots.
(derisive cry) The phrase a hoot and a holler has a very different meaning to hoot and holler. The former is a short distance, the latter is a verb of derisive cry.
Verb
- To cry out or shout in contempt.
- DrydenMatrons and girls shall hoot at thee no more.
- To make the cry of an owl.
- Shakespearethe clamorous owl that nightly hoots
- To assail with contemptuous cries or shouts; to follow with derisive shouts.
- Jonathan SwiftPartridge and his clan may hoot me for a cheat.