whoop
/wuːp/ noun, verb
Forms whoops whooping whooped hoop howp whup
- noun A loud, eager cry, usually of joy.
- noun A gasp, characteristic of whooping cough.
- noun A bump on a racetrack.
- verb (intransitive) To make a whoop.
- verb (transitive) To shout, to yell.
- verb To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To insult with shouts; to chase with derision.
- verb (transitive, informal) To beat, to strike.
- verb (transitive, informal) To defeat thoroughly.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English whopen, whowpen, howpen, houpen (“to whoop, cry out”), partially from Old French houper, hopper, houpper (“to shout”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwōpan, from Proto-Germanic *hwōpaną (“to boast, threaten”) (compare Gothic 𐍈𐍉𐍀𐌰𐌽 (ƕōpan, “to boast”), Old English hwōpan (“to threaten”)); and partially from Middle English wop (“weeping, lamentation”), from Old English wōp (“cry, outcry, shrieking, weeping, lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōp, from Proto-Germanic *wōpaz (“shout, cry, wail”) (compare Old Norse ópa (“to cry, scream, shout”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wōpjan, “to cry out”)).
From a traditional African American and Southern US pronunciation of whip.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The hoopoe.
- verb To utter a whoop, or loud cry, as eagerness, enthusiasm, or enjoyment; to cry out; to shout; to halloo; to utter a war whoop; to hoot, as an owl. Each whooping with a merry shout. Wordsworth.
- verb To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.
- verb To insult with shouts; to chase with derision.
Etymology [See Hoopoe.]
Etymology [OE. houpen. See Hoop, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “whoop”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details