Forms: 4–7 whope, 5 whowpe, 5–6 whoupe, 6 whoup, whooppe, whup, 6–7 whoope, 6– whoop. [Parallel with WHOOP int.; cf. HOOP v.2]
1. intr. To utter a cry of ‘whoop!’ or a loud vocal sound resembling this; to shout, hollo (as in incitement, summons, exultation, defiance, intimidation, or mere excitement).
a. 1400. Parlt. 3 Ages, 233 (Text B). And [the falconer] whopis hem [sc. the hawks] to whirry…. He wharris & whotes hem & whopes ful lowde.
c. 1450. Merlin, xi. 168. Whan he com nygh the loges he shette a-nother bolte; and whowped to the kynge Arthur.
1530. Palsgr., 781/2. I whoope, I call, je huppe. Ibid., Whooppe a lowde, and thou shalte here hym blowe his horne.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., G ij b. With lure I play the Faukner kinde, I hallowe, and I whoupe, I shake my fiste, I whistle shrill, but nought will make hir stoupe.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, R iij b. I so sadlie syt whuppinge all the day vnder a hill.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 91. They go no round,… but … one sentinel whopeth vnto another.
1605[?]. Drayton, Poems Lyr. & Past., Eglog iv. E 3. With that the shepheard whoop’d for ioy.
1655. Culpepper, etc., Riverius, III. i. 96. Others cannot hear … except the speakers whoop and hallow in their Ears.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 160. To whoop … for the warriors to come and join him.
1802. Wordsw., ‘The Cock is crowing,’ 15. The Ploughboy is whooping.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., ix. The hunters … whooping and blowing a mort, or death-note.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., vii. (1901), I. 57. Then if they killed!—… How they holloaed! How they whooped!
1883. Good Words, Aug., 544/1. They are careful to whoop out before ‘letting go’ with their slop-pails or dust-baskets.
b. trans. with obj. of cognate meaning (either a sb. or the actual words), or indef. it: To utter with a whoop; to express by whooping.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 127. When the harte is kylled, then all the huntesmen … shall blowe a note and whoupe also a deade note.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, F 2 b. I thought to haue cald in a Cooper … and bid him hoope it about,… but then I remembred mee the boyes had whoopt it sufficiently about the streetes.
1727. Arbuthnot, John Bull, III. viii. 62. The attornies and their clerks … whooping [ed. 1712 hooping] and hollowing, Long live John Bull.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 144. Whooping their revengeful noise.
1840. Thackeray, Bedford-Row Conspir., ii. Six lawyers’ clerks might whoop a tipsy song … but beyond this all was silence.
1865. Parkman, Huguenots, iv. (1875), 44. An Indian chief … ran to meet them, whooping and clamoring welcome.
c. trans. with adv. or advb. phr.: To bring, summon, or urge by or with whooping.
a. 1400. [see 1].
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 63. Iuno … furth from the nauye the Greek foas Dooth whoup.
1610. A. Cooke, Pope Joan, 10. A boy … who should haue whoopt him out of his bed.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., i. There he stood … with his fox grinning in grim death in one hand … whooping and halloaing … the pack up to him.
1893. Conan Doyle, Refugees, xxviii. The English colonists were whooping on the demons who attacked them.
d. trans. To shout at, hoot (a person).
1690. Dryden, Don Sebastian, II. i. I shou’d be hiss’d And whoop’d in Hell for that Ingratitude.
1902. Essex Weekly News, 24 Jan., 2/6. When we charged down on the Boers we shouted and whooped them like redskins.
e. Whoop it up (U.S. slang): to create a disturbance; to keep up an excitement or revel; to act or work in a stirring or rousing way.
1884. G. W. Curtis, in Harper’s Mag., LXIX. 472/2. He whoops it up with the plain people.
1887. T. Stevens, Around World on Bicycle, I. i. 11. They simply, in the language of the gold fields, ‘turned themselves loose,’ ‘made things hum,’ and ‘whooped ’em up’ around the bar-room of their village for exactly three days.
2. intr. To hoot, as an owl. Also trans. as in 1 b, c, d.
1658. Willsford, Natures Secr., 134. Owls whooping after Sunset, and in the night, foreshews a fair day to ensue.
1677. Tate, Poems, 98. Madge has whoopt me twice from her Ivy-bound Oak.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., VII. v. The owlet whoops to the wolf below.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 33. The owl … whoop’d a ‘good-night.’
1847. Tennyson, Princess, Concl. 110. Bats wheel’d, and owls whoop’d.
1861. Ld. Lytton & Fane, Tannhäuser, 52. Let the owl Whoop the high glories of the noon.
3. intr. To utter the ‘whoop’ in whooping-cough: see prec. sb. 1 b. Also trans. as in 1 c.
1887. R. N. Carey, Uncle Max, xviii. 144. Whooping-cough,—why, he nearly whooped himself to death.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 242. Young infants whoop seldom.
