HOOT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hoot mean? 

• HOOT (noun)
  The noun HOOT has 3 senses:

1. a loud raucous cry (as of an owl)

2. a cry or noise made to express displeasure or contempt

3. something of little value

  Familiarity information: HOOT used as a noun is uncommon.

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

1. to utter a loud clamorous shout

2. utter the characteristic sound of owls

  Familiarity information: HOOT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOOT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A loud raucous cry (as of an owl)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

call; cry; outcry; shout; vociferation; yell (a loud utterance; often in protest or opposition)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A cry or noise made to express displeasure or contempt

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

bird; boo; Bronx cheer; hiss; hoot; raspberry; razz; razzing; snort

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

call; cry; outcry; shout; vociferation; yell (a loud utterance; often in protest or opposition)

Derivation:

hoot (to utter a loud clamorous shout)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Something of little value

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

damn; darn; hoot; red cent; shit; shucks; tinker's dam; tinker's damn

Context example:

not worth shucks

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

ineptitude; worthlessness (having no qualities that would render it valuable or useful)

• HOOT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they hoot    ... he / she / it hoots   
Past simple: hooted   
Past participle: hooted   
-ing form: hooting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To utter a loud clamorous shout

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

the toughs and blades of the city hoot and bang their drums, drink arak, play dice, and dance

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

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

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hoot"):

pant-hoot (communicate by hooting and panting, as of primates)

grunt-hoot (communicate by hooting and grunting, as of primates)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sentence examples:

You can hear animals hoot in the meadows
The meadows hoot with animals

Derivation:

hoot (a cry or noise made to express displeasure or contempt)

hooter (a device on an automobile for making a warning noise)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Utter the characteristic sound of owls

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

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

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

hooter (nocturnal bird of prey with hawk-like beak and claws and large head with front-facing eyes)

 Context examples 

I should rather enjoy the brickbats and hooting, I think.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The Aurora's whistle hooted a final announcement of departure.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The Macedonia was now but a mile away, the black smoke pouring from her funnel at a right angle, so madly she raced, pounding through the sea at a seventeen-knot gait—’Sky-hooting through the brine, as Wolf Larsen quoted while gazing at her.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

From beyond it came such a Babel of hooting and screaming, horrible oaths and yet more horrible laughter, that the stoutest heart might have shrunk from casting down the frail barrier which faced them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The streets were crowded with perils—waggons, carts, automobiles; great, straining horses pulling huge trucks; and monstrous cable and electric cars hooting and clanging through the midst, screeching their insistent menace after the manner of the lynxes he had known in the northern woods.

(White Fang, by Jack London)