holler
/ˈhɒlə
/informal
verb [no object]
1Give a loud shout or cry: he hollers when he wants feeding [with direct speech]: ‘I can’t get down,’ she hollered...
- The soldiers were shouting and whooping and hollering.
- Day in day out, through the night there was hollering and shouting, it was almost unbearable.
- Lisa and Megan proceeded to dance together for a moment, Lisa hollering as loud as she could over the music.
Synonyms
shout, yell, cry, cry out, call, call out, roar, howl, bellow, bawl, bark, shriek, scream, screech, bay, wail, whoop, boom, thunder, raise one's voice, call at the top of one's voice
rare vociferate
1.1 (holler at) [usually in imperative] US informal Contact (someone): holler at me when you get a normal business model I got his number, so you can holler at him when you get a chance
noun
1A loud cry or shout: the audience responded with whoops and hollers...
- They make odd squeaky noises and suddenly explode in girlful shouts, screams and hollers of exuberance shattering the perfect calm of a quiet summer night.
- The venue absolutely erupts - hands in the air, whoops and whistles and hollers and general mentalism.
- An overweight, middle-age woman struts out on stage wearing a tube top, miniskirt and high heels to the deafening whoops and hollers of the studio audience.
Synonyms
shout, cry, yell, roar, howl, bellow, bawl, shriek, scream, screech, bay, wail, whoop
rare vociferation
1.1 (also field holler) chiefly US A melodic cry with abrupt or swooping changes of pitch, used originally by black slaves at work in the fields and later contributing to the development of the blues.From the raw materials of work songs and field hollers, a new form emerged: African-American in the truest sense of the term....
- The Blues is an original art form created by Black Americans that evolved out of Black American work songs, field hollers, spirituals and early string band sounds more than a century ago during slavery.
- Amplified harmonica, foot thumping guitar and screechy blues hollers and shouts are immediately distinctive, taking you back to an era before blues turned slick.
Phrases
give someone a holler
Origin
Late 17th century (as a verb): variant of the rare verb hollo; related to halloo.
hello from late 19th century:
This, like hallo (mid 16th century) a form found well into the 20th century and still common in the policeman's ‘'Allo, 'Allo, 'Allo’, is a variant of the earlier word hollo (early 16th century) and halloo (mid 16th century). They all come from cries used to urge on hunting dogs, and keep in touch will others in the field. Holler (late 17th century) is yet another form, now mainly found in the USA. Compare cooee