halloo

Interjection

1. Used to greet someone, or to catch their attention.
2. Used in hunting to urge on the pursuers.
   • Earl Walter winds his bugle horn;
     To horſe, to horſe, halloo, halloo!
     His fiery courſer ſnuffs the morn,
     And thronging ſerfs their Lord purſue.1796, Gottfried Augustus Bürger, “The Chase”, in [Walter Scott], transl., The Chase, and William and Helen: Two Ballads, from the German […], Edinburgh: […] Mundell and Son, […], for Manners and...
   • "Halloo!" cried the goodwife, and away she ran after it, with the frying-pan in one hand and the ladle in the other, as fast as she could, and the children behind her, while the goodman came limping after, last of all.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 65

Noun

halloo (plural halloos)

1. A shout of halloo.
   • List, list, I hear
     Som far off hallow break the silent Air.1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey...
   • At almost any time of the day—save ever the sacred hour of noon—you may see the fish-hunters pursuing their sport; with loud halloos, brandishing their spears, and splashing through the water in all directions.1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter 70, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC

Verb

halloo (third-person singular simple present halloos or hallooes, present participle hallooing, simple past and past participle hallooed)

1. (intransitive) To shout halloo.
   • For voice—I have lost it with hallooing and singing of anthems.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
   • […] they set up two or three great Shouts, hollowing with all their might, to try if they could make their Companions hear; but all was to no purpose:1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, pages 310-311
2. (transitive) To encourage with shouts; to egg (someone) on.
   • There is no place left to suspect, but that there were Managers of the Party, who clap’d their hands, and halloo’d the giddy young People to such rash Undertakings.1692, Richard Davis, Truth and Innocency Vindicated against Falshood & Malice, London: Nath. and Robert Ponder, page 6
   • Old JOHN halloo’s his hounds again:1718, Matthew Prior, Alma, or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto 2, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: J. Tonson and J. Barber, Volume 2, p. 101
3. (transitive) To chase with shouts or outcries.
   • If I fly, Coriolanus,
     Holloa me like a hare.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]...
   • […] the unhappy Man was halloo’d and persued to Death […]1694, Robert Ferguson, A Letter to the Right Honourable Sir John Holt, Kt. Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench, London, page 8
4. (transitive) To call or shout to; to hail.
   • A lake allows an average father, walking slowly,
     To circumvent it in an afternoon,
     And any healthy mother to halloo the children
     Back to her bedtime from their games across:1955, W. H. Auden, “Lakes”, in Selected Poetry of W. H. Auden, New York: Modern Library, published 1959, page 149
   • She pulled her vehicle to an abrupt stop, and then hallooed him.1974, James Purdy, The House of the Solitary Maggot, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 300
5. (transitive) To shout (something).
   • Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
     And make the babbling gossip of the air
     Cry out ‘Olivia!’c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
   • […] the servants halloo'd out their excuses from the kitchen.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 177