whoop

From Middle English whopen, whowpen, howpen, houpen (“to whoop, cry out”), partially from Old French houper, hopper, houpper (“to shout”), of uncertain origin (compare Old Norse ópa (“to cry, scream, shout”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wōpjan, “to crow as a cock”), Gothic 𐌷𐍅𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hwōpjan, “to boast”), Old English hwōpan (“to threaten”)); and partially from Middle English wop (“weeping, lamentation”), from Old English wōp (“cry, outcry, shrieking, weeping, lamentation”), see woop.

• hoop
• howp

• enPR: wo͞op, hwo͞op, IPA^(key): /wuːp/, /ʍuːp/ or enPR: ho͞op, IPA^(key): /huːp/
• Rhymes: -uːp
• Homophone: hoop (for one pronunciation of the noun and the associated intransitive verb)

whoop (plural whoops)

1. An loud eager cry, usually of joy.
   • 1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 30:

     [A] great whoop of victory sounded as finally they carried the fish up the beach.

2. A gasp, characteristic of whooping cough.
3. A bump on a racetrack.

   Synonym of whoop-de-doo

   • 2006, Steve Casper, ATVs: Everything You Need to Know (page 104)

     The key to jamming through the whoops is to keep your weight to the back of the quad […] and keep the front wheels high […]

   • 2009, Lee Klancher, Kevin Cameron, Motorcycle Dream Garages (page 184)

     The “98 MPH” sign used to be on a set of particularly vicious whoops at one of John's favorite racetracks.

whoop (third-person singular simple present whoops, present participle whooping, simple past and past participle whooped)

1. (intransitive) To make a whoop.
   • William Wordsworth

     each whooping with a merry shout

   • W. Browne

     When naught was heard but now and then the howl / Of some vile cur, or whooping of the owl.

2. (transitive) To shout, to yell.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.

3. To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To insult with shouts; to chase with derision.
   • William Shakespeare

     And suffered me by the voice of slaves to be / Whooped out of Rome.

• See also Thesaurus:shout

• whoop it up

Corruption of whip.

• whup

• enPR: wo͝op, hwo͝op, IPA^(key): /wʊp/, /ʍʊp/

whoop (third-person singular simple present whoops, present participle whooping, simple past and past participle whooped)

1. (transitive, informal) To beat, to strike.
2. (transitive, informal) To defeat thoroughly.

• whoop someone's ass
• open a can of whoop ass

• whoopee
• whoops