Word.ws English Dictionary

hoolie

Syllables: hool·ieUK/ˈhuːli//ˈhuli/

hoolie is the abbreviation of hooligan.

hoolie is the alternative spelling of hooley.

Meaning of hooligan

Noun (1)

hooligan (plural hooligans)

  1. (attributive, informal) A young person who causes trouble or violence, typically as a member of a gang or other group.
    • She also heard boys from other classes behind her talking: “So, Teacher Tang is a female hooligan.”2012, Tie Ning, The Bathing Women: A Novel
  2. (US, slang) A member of the United States Coast Guard.
    • Many professional Navy and Coast Guard men were inclined to scoff. What kind of Navy was this, and what did they think they were up to, anyway? This bunch of hooligans wouldn't be any good to anyone; wouldn't be worth the powder to blow 'em to hell. Hooligan's Navy.1944, Lawrance Roger Thompson, The Navy Hunts the CGR 3070, page 7

Noun (2)

hooligan (plural hooligan or hooligans)

  1. A type of fish, an anadromous smelt, Thaleichthys pacificus, found in the North Pacific.
    • One year there was a strong wind. We couldn’t catch herring, but they were there. We caught lots of hooligans (smelt) and got through the year on those.1993, James H. Barker, quoting Larry John, “Smelt Running Season, Fish Hitting: Qusiirvik, Kaugun”, in Always Getting Ready: Upterrlainarluta: Yup’ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska, Seattle...
    Synonyms:
    eulachon, candlefish

See all 5 meanings of hooligan

Meaning of hooley

Noun

hooley (plural hooleys)

  1. (Ireland) A noisy celebration or party; also, an evening of traditional music and dance.
    • At a family gathering, a wake or a Christmas hooley, other children would step forward to sing a rhyme or dance a hornpipe.2002, Joseph O’Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 88
  2. (Scotland) Chiefly in the form to blow a hooley: a strong wind; a gale.
    • It’s blowing a hooley out there.

See all 4 meanings of hooley

Synonyms of hoolie

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of hoolie

pluralhoolies

Origin of hoolie

From hool(igan) + -ie (diminutive suffix).

A variant of hooley; the further etymology of etymology 2 sense 1 (“noisy celebration or party”) is unknown. Etymology 2 sense 2 (“strong wind”) is possibly from one of the following: * borrowed from Orkney Scots hool(an) (“strong wind”) + English -ie (diminutive suffix). Hoolan is derived from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse ýlun (“howling, wailing”), from ýla (“to howl”) (ultimately onomatopoeic) + -un (suffix forming nouns). * from etymology 2 sense 1. * From “tulaidh” in Scottish Gaelic, often a prefix, indicating extremity, starkness, things taken to an ultimate extent, an absolute degree, which, lenited as “thulaidh” would be pronounced “hoolie”.

Words that rhyme with hoolie

20 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hoolie

What is hoolie the abbreviation of?
Hoolie is the abbreviation of hooligan.
How do you pronounce hoolie?
Hoolie is pronounced /ˈhuːli/ (UK).

Words near hoolie in the dictionary

  1. hooley
  2. hooley-ann
  3. hooley-anns
  4. hooleys
  5. Hooli
  6. hoolie
  7. hoolies
  8. hooligan
  9. hooligan firm
  10. hooligan firms
  11. hooligan tool

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoolie (page history and authors); hooligan (page history and authors); hooley (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-hoolie.wav, En-au-hoolie.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hoolie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoolie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.