hooting

Etymology

verb

1. present participle and gerund of hoot

noun

1. The sound of a hoot, or the occasion of producing this sound.
   One small species, which is known to them by its melancholy nocturnal hootings (for as it never appears in the day few even of the hunters have ever seen it) is particularly ominous. 1818, John Franklin, The Journey to the Polar Sea
   Popanilla is found "not guilty, and kicked out of court, amidst the hootings of the mob, without a stain upon his reputation." 1828, Various, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12,
   The hootings of this unhappy gentleman may generally be heard in the still evenings, when the rooks are all at rest; and I have often listened to them of a moonlight night with a kind of mysterious gratification. 1877, Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall