Word.ws English Dictionary

pillaloo

pillaloo noun: a chorus of sorrow or distress.

Noun

pillaloo (plural not attested)

  1. (no plural, obsolete) A chorus of sorrow or distress
    • So you may fancy the pillaloo that went up when the Overseers posted their new assessment on the church door and ‘twas found they’d ruled out no less than sixty voters known, or suspected to be, in Dr. Macann’s interest.1903, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Two Sides of the Face
    • “Pitch a lady’s luggage into the road, would you?” struck in Jim the Guard, making himself heard above the pillaloo.1904, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “Frenchman's Creek: A Reported Tale,”, in Shakespeare's Christmas; And Other Stories

Interjection

  1. (obsolete) A cry of sorrow or distress
    • Oh, pillaloo! why should ye go, my boy, and lave all the good atin and drinkin?1837 Benson Hill, "the Irish Howl," Gentleman's magazine, Volume 1, Chas. Alexander, p183
    • “Och, but its kilt and smashed intirely they are,” returned Larry, as he stumbled over the shattered remains of a corpse; “och hone – och hone – pillaloo, pillaloo!”1839, Matthew Henry Barker, Hamilton King; or, The smuggler and the dwarf, by the Old Sailor,, page 196

Origin of pillaloo

Of Irish origin; originally began as a hunting cry.

Questions about pillaloo

What does pillaloo mean?
Pillaloo means a chorus of sorrow or distress.
What part of speech is pillaloo?
Pillaloo can be a noun or an interjection.

Words near pillaloo in the dictionary

  1. pillagings
  2. Pillai
  3. Pillais
  4. pillaite
  5. Pillaiyar
  6. pillaloo
  7. pillar
  8. pillar block
  9. pillar blocks
  10. pillar box
  11. pillar boxes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pillaloo (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.

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