COO

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does coo mean? 

• COO (noun)
  The noun COO has 1 sense:

1. the sound made by a pigeon

  Familiarity information: COO used as a noun is very rare.

• COO (verb)
  The verb COO has 2 senses:

1. speak softly or lovingly

2. cry softly, as of pigeons

  Familiarity information: COO used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The sound made by a pigeon

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("coo" is a kind of...):

cry (the characteristic utterance of an animal)

Derivation:

coo (cry softly, as of pigeons)

• COO (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they coo    ... he / she / it coos   
Past simple: cooed   
Past participle: cooed   
-ing form: cooing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Speak softly or lovingly

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

The mother who held her baby was cooing softly

Hypernyms (to "coo" is one way to...):

murmur (speak softly or indistinctly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue coo

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cry softly, as of pigeons

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "coo" is one way to...):

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

coo (the sound made by a pigeon)

 Context examples 

"Shall I tell you?" he cooed.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Diana had a voice toned, to my ear, like the cooing of a dove.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Laurie had christened it, saying it was highly appropriate to the gentle lovers who 'went on together like a pair of turtledoves, with first a bill and then a coo'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The gentle rustle of the branches and the distant cooing of pigeons were the only sounds which broke in upon the silence, save that once Alleyne heard afar off a merry call upon a hunting bugle and the shrill yapping of the hounds.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To which pathetic appeal Daisy would answer with a coo, or Demi with a crow, and Meg would put by her lamentations for a maternal revel, which soothed her solitude for the time being.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)