shoo
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʃuː/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -uː
- Homophones: shoe, SHU
Etymology 1
From Middle English schew, schowe, show, showe, scou (“shoo!”, interjection). Compare Middle High German schū, schuo (“shoo!”, interjection) (modern German scheu! (“shoo!”)), Dutch schuwen (“to shun”), German scheuchen (“to scare, drive away”).
Verb
shoo (third-person singular simple present shoos, present participle shooing, simple past and past participle shooed)
- (transitive, informal) To induce someone or something to leave.
- Don't just shoo away mosquitoes, kill them!
- See if you can shoo off the insurance salesmen.
- (intransitive, informal) To leave under inducement.
- You kids had better shoo before your parents get a call.
- (informal, rare) To usher someone.
- Shoo the visitor in.
Derived terms
Translations
to induce someone to leave
|
usher — see usher
Interjection
shoo!
- (informal, demeaning) Go away! Clear off!
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:go away
Translations
go away
|
Etymology 2
From Middle English scho, sheo, scheo, sȝheo, from Old English hēo (“she”). More at she.
Pronoun
shoo
- (Yorkshire) Alternative form of she.
- 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter II, in Wuthering Heights[1], New York: Harper Brothers, published 1855, →OCLC, page 15:
- Hearken, hearken, shoo’s cursing on em!” muttered Joseph, towards whom I had been steering.
See also
Anagrams
Middle English
Etymology 1
Noun
shoo
- alternative form of scho (“shoe”)
Etymology 2
Verb
shoo
- alternative form of schon (“to shoe”)
Navajo
Interjection
shoo
- I see; oh yes, I see
Derived terms
Swahili
Etymology
Pronunciation
Audio (Kenya): (file)
Noun
shoo class IX (plural shoo class X)
- show (performance)
Swedish
Interjection
shoo
- (slang) alternative form of sho (“hi”)
References
Yola
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English scho, sche, from Old English hēo, hīo, from Proto-West Germanic *hiju.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʃuː/, /ʃiː/
Pronoun
shoo
- she
- 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 63:
- Quo shoo.
- Says she.
- 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 14, page 90:
- Jaane got leigheen; shoo pleast aam all, fowe?
- Joan set them a laughing, she pleased them all, how?
- 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 14, page 90:
- Shoo ya aam zim to doone, as w' be doone nowe;
- She gave them some to do, as we are doing now;
- 1867, “SONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 108:
- Shoo zent him o' die.
- She sent him one day.
- 1867, “SONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 6, page 108:
- Shoo zent him anoor die a gozleen to keep;
- She sent him another day the goslings to keep;
Derived terms
References
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 67