shoo - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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”).

shoo (third-person singular simple present shoos, present participle shooing, simple past and past participle shooed)

  1. (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.
    • 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 15:
      It was those damned bandages over my eyes, the medley of voices that had shouted back at me down the corridor. But I certainly was getting the willies - and once you get 'em, they grow. Already they were past the stage where you can shoo them off by whistling or singing at yourself.
  2. (intransitive, informal) To leave under inducement.
    You kids had better shoo before your parents get a call.
  3. (informal, rare) To usher someone.
    Shoo the visitor in.

to induce someone to leave

to leave under inducement

shoo!

  1. (informal, demeaning) Go away! Clear off!
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:go away

go away

From Middle English scho, sheo, scheo, sȝheo, from Old English hēo (“she”). More at she.

shoo

  1. (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.

shoo

  1. (Sussex) alternative form of sche (“she”)

shoo

  1. alternative form of scho (“shoe”)

shoo

  1. alternative form of schon (“to shoe”)

shoo

  1. I see; oh yes, I see

Borrowed from English show.

shoo class IX (plural **shoo class X)

  1. show (performance)

shoo

  1. (slang) alternative form of sho (“hi”)

From Middle English scho, sche, from Old English hēo, hīo, from Proto-West Germanic *hiju.

shoo

  1. she
    • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 63:
    • 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;