whoop

Noun

whoop (plural whoops)

1. A loud, eager cry, usually of joy.
   • Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the roar of the grim alligator.1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, (please specify either |part=I or II)
   • [A] great whoop of victory sounded as finally they carried the fish up the beach.1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 30
2. A gasp, characteristic of whooping cough.
3. A bump on a racetrack.
   • .
   • The key to jamming through the whoops is to keep your weight to the back of the quad […] and keep the front wheels high […]2006, Steve Casper, ATVs: Everything You Need to Know, page 104

Verb (1)

whoop (third-person singular simple present whoops, present participle whooping, simple past and past participle whooped)

1. (intransitive) To make a whoop.
   • each whooping with a merry shout1815, William Wordsworth, Beggars
   • When naught was heard but now and then the howl / Of some vile cur, or whooping of the owl.1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals
2. (transitive) To shout, to yell.
   • I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
3. To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.
4. (obsolete, transitive) To insult with shouts; to chase with derision.
   • And suffered me by the voice of slaves to be / Whooped out of Rome.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]...

Verb (2)

IPA/wʊp/

whoop (third-person singular simple present whoops, present participle whooping, simple past and past participle whooped)

1. (informal, transitive) To beat, to strike.
2. (informal, transitive) To defeat thoroughly.