halloo

Etymology

From Middle English hallow (“pursue, urge on”), from Old French haloer, which is imitative.

intj

1. Used to greet someone, or to catch their attention.
2. Used in hunting to urge on the pursuers.
   "Halloo!" cried the goodwife, and away she ran after it, with the frying-pan in one hand and the ladle in the other, as fast as she could, and the children behind her, while the goodman came limping after, last of all. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 65

noun

1. A shout of halloo.
   She was afraid that her faint cry would not be heard, but at least one member of the group responded to it, for there was an answering halloo, and a small figure detached itself from the rest and darted forward. 1962, Joan Aiken, chapter 3, in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, New York: Doubleday, page 25

verb

1. (intransitive) To shout halloo.
   As our object was rather to enjoy the music of the chase, than to capture the deer, they shouted and hallooed as he entered the water, and he wheeled back, and went tearing in huge affright through the woods, up the island again. 1857, S. H. Hammond, Wild Northern Scenes
   As we ran, we hallooed, and so came upon the boy, and I saw that he had my sword. 1907, William Hope Hodgson, The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"
   We hallooed again, to rouse the trapper. 1917, Charles S. Brooks, There's Pippins And Cheese To Come
2. (transitive) To encourage with shouts; to egg (someone) on.
   There is no place left to suspect, but that there were Managers of the Party, who clap’d their hands, and halloo’d the giddy young People to such rash Undertakings. 1692, Richard Davis, Truth and Innocency Vindicated against Falshood & Malice, London: Nath. and Robert Ponder, page 6
   1718, Matthew Prior, Alma, or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto 2, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: J. Tonson and J. Barber, Volume 2, p. 101, Old JOHN halloo’s his hounds again:
   Let us burn or hang up all the Mathematicians in Great Britain, or halloo the mob upon them to tear them to pieces every Mother’s Son of them […] 1735, George Berkeley, A Defence of Free-Thinking in Mathematics, London: J. Tonson, page 12
   He played with Jacko like a child—rolled with him about the decks—hallooed him on to all manner of mischief—clapped his hands and cheered him in his performance, and then, in his own language, pronounced a high eulogy upon his achievements. 1838, William Gilmore Simms, “The Cherokee Embassage”, in Carl Werner, an Imaginative Story, with Other Tales of Imagination, volume 2, New York: George Adlard, pages 187–188
   It is not credible that Germany was blind to the all-but-inevitable results of letting Austria loose to range around, of hallooing her on, and of comforting her with assurances of loyal support. 1915, Frederick Scott Oliver, chapter 3, in Ordeal by Battle, London: Macmillan, page 29
3. (transitive) To chase with shouts or outcries.
   […] the unhappy Man was halloo’d and persued to Death […] 1694, Robert Ferguson, A Letter to the Right Honourable Sir John Holt, Kt. Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench, London, page 8
   Now, if you can keep your brother sportsmen in order, and put any discretion into them, you are in luck; they more frequently do harm than good: if it be possible, persuade those who wish to halloo the fox off, to stand quiet under the cover-side, and on no account to halloo him too soon […] 1915, E. D. Cuming, Fox and Hounds, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 7
4. (transitive) To call or shout to; to hail.
   A lake allows an average father, walking slowly, To circumvent it in an afternoon, And any healthy mother to halloo the children Back to her bedtime from their games across: 1955, W. H. Auden, “Lakes”, in Selected Poetry of W. H. Auden, New York: Modern Library, published 1959, page 149
   She pulled her vehicle to an abrupt stop, and then hallooed him. 1974, James Purdy, The House of the Solitary Maggot, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 300
5. (transitive) To shout (something).