halloo

alternative dated haloo

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 Miller, […]; and sold by T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell) […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 1

   1 more example

   "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

plural halloos · alternative dated haloo

1. A shout of halloo.

   List, list, I hear Som far off hallow break the silent Air.

   Comus

   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 Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 96

   3 more examples

   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

   As he was going over a pretty high mountain, he heard the noise of horses, the halloo of a huntsman, and the finest horn in the world.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 401

   She was afraid that her faint cry would not be heard, but at least one member of the group responded to it, for there was an answering halloo, and a small figure detached itself from the rest and darted forward.

   1962, Joan Aiken, chapter 3, in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, New York: Doubleday, page 25

present singular third person halloos · present singular third person hallooes · participle present hallooing · participle past hallooed · past hallooed · alternative dated haloo

1. intransitiveTo shout halloo.

   We hallooed again, to rouse the trapper.

   1917, Charles S. Brooks, There's Pippins And Cheese To Come

   4 more examples

   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: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   […] 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

   As our object was rather to enjoy the music of the chase, than to capture the deer, they shouted and hallooed as he entered the water, and he wheeled back, and went tearing in huge affright through the woods, up the island again.

   1857, S. H. Hammond, Wild Northern Scenes

   As we ran, we hallooed, and so came upon the boy, and I saw that he had my sword.

   1907, William Hope Hodgson, The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"

2. transitiveTo encourage with shouts; to egg (someone) on.

   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, Old JOHN halloo’s his hounds again:

   4 more examples

   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

   “Let us burn or hang up all the Mathematicians in Great Britain, or halloo the mob upon them to tear them to pieces every Mother’s Son of them […]”

   1735, George Berkeley, A Defence of Free-Thinking in Mathematics, London: J. Tonson, page 12

   He played with Jacko like a child—rolled with him about the decks—hallooed him on to all manner of mischief—clapped his hands and cheered him in his performance, and then, in his own language, pronounced a high eulogy upon his achievements.

   1838, William Gilmore Simms, “The Cherokee Embassage”, in Carl Werner, an Imaginative Story, with Other Tales of Imagination, volume 2, New York: George Adlard, pages 187–188

   It is not credible that Germany was blind to the all-but-inevitable results of letting Austria loose to range around, of hallooing her on, and of comforting her with assurances of loyal support.

   1915, Frederick Scott Oliver, chapter 3, in Ordeal by Battle, London: Macmillan, page 29

3. transitiveTo 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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene viii]

   2 more examples

   […] 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

   Now, if you can keep your brother sportsmen in order, and put any discretion into them, you are in luck; they more frequently do harm than good: if it be possible, persuade those who wish to halloo the fox off, to stand quiet under the cover-side, and on no account to halloo him too soon […]

   1915, E. D. Cuming, Fox and Hounds, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 7

4. transitiveTo call or shout to; to hail.

   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

   1 more example

   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

5. transitiveTo shout (something).

   […] 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

   1 more example

   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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]