hoot
/huːt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/hʉːt/
hoot noun: a derisive cry or shout.
Noun (1)
hoot (plural hoots)
- A derisive cry or shout.
- My performance drew hoots of derision from the crowd.
- The cry of an owl.
- I heard the hoot of an owl. Whoo, whoo!
- A fun event or person.
- The party at the weekend was such a hoot! Thanks for the invite.
- A small particle; a whit or jot.
- We don't care a hoot about what you think.
- Well, 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.1878, John Hanson Beadle, Western Wilds, and the Men who Redeem Them, Jones Brothers, →OCLC, page 611
Verb
hoot (third-person singular simple present hoots, present participle hooting, simple past and past participle hooted)
- To cry out or shout in contempt.
- Matrons and girls shall hoot at thee no more,1711, John Dryden, “Satire IX”, in Dryden’s Juvenal
- Fitzgerald’s supporters resented Dan’s familiarity with their idol, and began to hoot Dan.1911, ‘Steel Rudd’, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 90
- To make a hoo, the cry of an owl.
- The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders / At our quaint spirits.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
- Outside an owl was hooting most dismally in the darkness. The villa was on a by-road, and there was no human sound to link them up with life.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
- To assail with contemptuous cries or shouts; to follow with derisive shouts.
- Mary felt extremely offended when the workers hooted at her.
- And I will be content, that Partridge, and the rest of his Clan, may hoot me for a Cheat and Impostor, if I fail in any single Particular of Moment.1708, Isaac Bickerstaff [Jonathan Swift], Predictions for the Year 1708
- To sound the horn of a vehicle.
- When you arrive to pick me up, hoot, and I'll come outside.
Noun (2)
hoot (uncountable)
- Money, especially in the form of cash given as payment.
- On the construction you could make a pot of hoot in no time. You oughter be able to get two or three quid a day when things is busy.1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Sydney, N.S.W.: A&R Classics, published 2013, →ISBN, page 304
- Synonyms:
- ackers, bees and honey, blunt, bones, brass, bread, bread and honey, Bugs Bunny, cake, cheddar
Proper noun capitalized: Hoot
Hoot (plural Hoots)
- A surname.
hoot meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
hoot in Hindi
- हूट
hoot in Tamil
- ஆந்தையின் அலறல், கத்தல், வாகனத்தின் ஊதல் ஒலி, ஏளனமாக, கூச்சலிட்டு விரட்டு, ஆந்தைபோல் அலறு
hoot in Marathi
- हूट
hoot in Urdu
- بولیان نکالنا, فقرہ کسنا, ہلڑ بازی کرنا, نعرہ بازی کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
- hoot in Bengali
- প্যাঁচার ডাক, উপহাসসূচক চিৎকার, হর্নের শব্দ
- hoot in Telugu
- హుట్, హూట్
- hoot in Malayalam
- പുച്ഛിച്ചാർക്കൽ, മൂങ്ങയുടെ കരച്ചിൽ, ചൂളം വിളി, സൈറൻ ശബ്ദം
- hoot in Kannada
- ಫೂತ್ಕಾರ, ಕೂಗು, ಶಬ್ದ, ಗದ್ದಲ
- hoot in Punjabi
- ਹੂਟ
- hoot in Gujarati
- હૂટ
- hoot in Odia
- ହୁଟ୍
- hoot in Nepali
- हुट, हूट
- hoot in Tagalog
- wahu, wumahu
Examples of hoot in a sentence
- The comedy club's audience was known for hooting down timid performers.
- But practised Battlefielders should find playing it, and the rest of Robbery, to be a total hoot.
- Customers said I was a hoot; management gave me the bounce.
Synonyms of hoot
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of hoot
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hoots |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hoots |
| present participle | hooting |
| past participle | hooted |
| past | hooted |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Hoots |
Origin of hoot
From Middle English houten, huten, hoten, assumed to be of North Germanic origin: Swedish hut! (“begone!”, interjection) (also dialectal Norwegian hut, Bornholm Danish hut, hot), Swedish huta (“to drive someone away (with calls)”), Old Swedish huta (“to cast out in contempt”), related to Swedish hojta (“to holler”), hojt (“a holler”), further related to Middle High German hiuzen, hūzen (“to call to pursuit”). Swedish hut is the common command to call off and silence barking (hunting) dogs on the pursuit. Compare Swedish veta hut (“know one's place, like a dog”, literally “to know 'hoot' (the command)”). The Middle High German terms could suggest an earlier Proto-Germanic (hunting dog command?) *hūt- (“to command barking en pursuit?”). Maybe cognate to shout? Ultimately onomatopoeic. Compare Old Norse hutututu (“brr”), Norwegian hutra, Swedish huttra, huttla, Danish hudre, Low German hudern, German huttern (“to shiver”). Further compare English hoy, Dutch hui, Low German hoi, Norwegian hoi, Swedish hoj, Danish hoj, huj (“ho, hallo”).
A variant of utu (influenced by etymology 1), borrowed from Māori utu (“payment, revenge, payback”).
Words formed from hoot
Phrases with hoot
Words that rhyme with hoot
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- cute
- moot
- overshoot
- recruit
- salute
- volute
- dispute
- impute
- pollute
- scoot
- snoot
- substitute
- chute
- depute
- dilute
- loot
- pursuit
- reboot
- scute
- uproot
- Beirut
- cahoot
- Clute
- convolute
- lute
- zoot
- ablute
- Aleut
- argute
- astute
- beaut
- bruit
- compute
- coot
- doot
- en route
- glout
- jute
- minute
- newt
- poot
- refute
- repute
- resolute
- 'tute
- angel lute
- butte
- cheroot
Questions about hoot
- What does hoot mean?
- Hoot means a derisive cry or shout.
- What is hoot in Hindi?
- Hoot in Hindi is हूट. See Hoot meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is hoot?
- Hoot can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce hoot?
- Hoot is pronounced /huːt/.
- What is the plural of hoot?
- The plural of hoot is hoots.
Words near hoot in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hoot (page history and authors); Hoot (page history and authors); hoot (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoot (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hoot (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoot (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Hoot (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hoot (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoot (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hoot (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hoot (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoot (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoot (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hoot (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-au-hoot.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hoot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.