Home British & World English holler

Definition of holler in English:

holler

verb

[no object]informal

  • 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.’
    • ‘The crowd hooted, hollered and roared their approval at the film's critique.’
    • ‘Shouting, whooping, hollering, and shooting into the air, they raced toward the ranch.’
    • ‘The crowd on the other side of the road was hollering and whooping.’
    • ‘The stands were all packed with people and everyone was screaming and hollering.’
    • ‘I yelled and hollered at him the entire time while continuously pounding on his back as he refused to put me down.’
    • ‘Already shouts were going up along the wall, guards hollering at each other that there was a fire.’
    • ‘Meeting is better than hollering at each other through the media.’
    • ‘We alternated between hollering at him and repeating everything five times.’
    • ‘In any other neighbourhood residents would be phoning the papers, picketing and hollering at city council.’
    • ‘He started hollering at me to give him money, pointing to a bowl of change.’
    • ‘In fact, they were hooting and hollering, enjoying this fantastic sight.’
    • ‘He starts hollering about how this is none of my business.’
    • ‘What was it I was saying about standing in the street hollering with no one listening?’
    • ‘The speakers hollered over the excited crowd from a balcony above the plaza.’
    • ‘The patrol called for backup, entered the campus and hollered for the fellow to come down.’
    • ‘One of the doctors hollered to me from the living room where they were all fixated on the tv.’
    • ‘He walked slowly to the baseline to begin the match as the crowd cheered and hollered.’
    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
    View synonyms
    1. 1.1holler atUS usually in imperative 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

informal

  • 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.’
    • ‘Choruses of whoops and hollers rippled across the crowd, starting with one person or one group and quickly spreading out to the thousands that packed the streets farther than the eye could see.’
    • ‘Entering the stage we're met with whoops and hollers and then heckling from all over the hall.’
    • ‘So we pound our stake in the ground of the side we've chosen, put out our sign and shout and holler with the rest.’
    • ‘But, nonetheless, to be here tonight in Salt Lake City and to hear the shrieks and hollers of the crowd was a fantastic experience.’
    • ‘After nearly twenty minutes of this pointless and boring (and, in some cases, untruthful) jabber, the coach blew four quick whistle blasts and gave a long, loud holler.’
    • ‘Whoops and hollers of ‘Yes, I made it ‘are greeted with shouts of encouragement from family and friends.’’
    • ‘The room immediately filled with whoops and hollers.’
    • ‘Speed are slick professional entertainers, constantly engaging the audience with whoops, hollers, handclaps and dazzling charisma.’
    • ‘I went for my ID in my pocket, an action that was met with hollers to keep my hands up.’
    • ‘‘Come on down,’ he all but hollers, ‘the price is wrong!’’
    • ‘They were drowned in a sea of hollers and applause when the set finally ended.’
    • ‘The whoops and hollers that erupted could have been heard a mile away.’
    • ‘Confident that he's created the appropriate amount of suspense, he leaps through the doorway and points and hollers, ‘THERE IT IS!’’
    • ‘When the song ends and the hoots and hollers die down, Darren asks the crowd: ‘What do you want?’’
    • ‘The audience seemed to eat up this type of rock, and the band received hoots and hollers by set's end.’
    • ‘Schmidt's hollers brought him back to his senses.’
    • ‘The guys let out appreciative hollers as Elizabeth stepped up onto the stage.’
    shout, cry, yell, roar, howl, bellow, bawl, shriek, scream, screech, bay, wail, whoop
    View synonyms
    1. 1.1US 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
    US informal

    • usually in imperative Contact someone.

      ‘just give me a holler any time you want a hand’
      ‘I'll probably give him a holler this week’

Origin

Late 17th century (as a verb): variant of the rare verb hollo; related to halloo.

Pronunciation

holler

/ˈhɒlə/