whoa
intj/wəʊ/UK/woʊ/US
Etymology
Whoa (c. 1843) is a variant of woa (c. 1840), itself a variant of wo (c. 1787), from who (c. 1450), ultimately from Middle English ho, hoo (interjection), probably from Old Norse hó! (interjection, also, a shepherd's call). Compare German ho, Old French ho ! (“hold!, halt!”).
Definitions
Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof)
Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.
- Whoa, Nelly!
- I can see Mickie getting hot, I'm about to grab his arm, hold him back, say, Whoa, whoa, Mick, not here, it ain't worth it what happened inside just now.
An expression of surprise.
- Whoa, are you serious?
- Whoa. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?
- Jen: Douglas has asked me to be his PA. Moss: Oh. My. God! Well, that is something and a half. His PA? How... Whoa! His PA... Shut up! His PA! Jen: It means "personal assistant". Moss: Thank you. Right, OK.
Used as a meaningless filler in song lyrics.
- I am the type who is liable to snipe you With two seconds left to go, whoa.
- And oh whoa girl, it's a shame. Oh whoa girl, it's a doggone shame.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa".
- He was whoaing the horses loudly, and they did seem to be going faster than usual—in fact, they were galloping.
The neighborhood
- antonymgiddyupantonym(s) of “stop, said to a horse”
- antonymgiddapantonym(s) of “stop, said to a horse”
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for whoa. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA