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  1. holler love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To yell or shout.
  2. v. Informal To complain.
  3. v. To shout out (words or phrases). See Synonyms at shout.
  4. n. A yell or shout; a call.
  5. n. Informal A complaint or gripe.
  6. adj. Chiefly Upper Southern U.S. Variant of hollow.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A common vulgar form of hollo.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A yell, shout.
  2. n. By extension, any communication to get somebody's attention.
  3. v. intransitive To yell or shout.
  4. v. transitive To call out one or more words
  5. v. To complain, gripe
  6. n. In South Midland and Southern (dialects of American English), a hollow.
  7. n. A rural road in the Appalachians in the U.S.A.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a very loud utterance (like the sound of an animal)
  2. v. complain.
  3. v. shout out
  4. v. utter a sudden loud cry
  5. n. a small valley between mountains

Etymologies

  1. American variant of holla or hallo. Possibly derived from the Irish Gaelic oll-bhúir, pronounced h-oll-oor, meaning a terrific yell, a great roar. (Wiktionary)
  2. From obsolete hollo, hail!, stop!; see hello. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “But apparently a "holler" is just a "hollow" – a valley between mountains – in West Virginia.”

    CASTING DIRECTOR LOVES INBREEDING

  • “But the opener did turn a bit testy in the eighth inning when Grant Balfour hit J.D. Drew in the right shoulder with a high fastball, prompting a few Red Sox to holler from the bench.”

    Dice-K masterful as Red Sox beat Rays in ALCS opener

  • “But the opener did turn a bit testy in the eighth when Grant Balfour hit J.D. Drew in the right shoulder with a high fastball, prompting a few Red Sox to holler from the bench.”

    USATODAY.com

  • “Some folks want to conserve energy and avoid making the trek to the 4th floor walk-up apartment, so they will just holler from the street below.”

    Archive 2008-01-01

  • “His mother (?) and another 40-something woman were helping him carry things down the stairs, as were two teenaged girls -- one of which I would surely recognize if she were to holler from the stairwell (where the acoustics promise hearty echos), HEY, BRADLEY IS PISSING IN THE PARKING LOT!”

    Cherie waxes vindictive

  • “Then claim your title or holler at the guard so you can conduct your business elsewhere.”

    Simon & Schuster: Push Comes to Shove

  • “Also: I have a friend who is a casting director and he said that he spent all of Wednesday looking for "holler" Canadians with weird flat faces.”

    A SOPRANOS MOVIE?

  • “Similar to the posting by Jeff4066, "Fair to middlin '" was a common response to, "How are you?" in my hometown, and I was in college before it was really driven home that "holler" isn't proper English for "large ditch, etc ...”

    Long-Lost Language

  • “That's why we put that it's in a 'holler' in the mountains.”

    Archive 2008-02-01

  • “Some of these 'holler' people -- because they are insular and clannish, and they don't leave their area -- there is literally inbreeding, and the people there often have a different kind of look.”

    Archive 2008-02-01

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synonyms (8)

Words with the same meaning

  1. scream
  1. hollering
  1. hurl
  1. howl
  1. shout
  1. cry
  1. outcry
  1. complain

hypernyms (12)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. call
  2. yell
  1. vociferation
  2. shout
  1. cry
  2. outcry
  1. sound off
  2. kick
  1. quetch
  2. complain
  1. plain
  2. kvetch

rhymes (9)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Mahler
  1. boller
  1. collar
  1. coller
  1. dollar
  1. goller
  1. nondollar
  1. scholar
  1. squalor

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. tater
  1. winder

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘holler’.

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Comments

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  • dontcry It was 'tiger' for me, too -- but I remember hearing the other version from time to time when we moved around the country. Nov 4, 2008

  • bilby The book from which I transcribed this version, using tiger rather than what rhymes with Tigger, was published in 1957. Nov 4, 2008

  • sarra I grew up with your mother's version, too, rolig. Nov 4, 2008

  • rolig "Tiger" was what I learned as a child from my parents, who understood that the version they had grown up with, or at least my Virginian mother had grown up with, in which an African-American was the object of the hunt, was no longer acceptable in polite society. Nov 4, 2008

  • qroqqa Oh, I didn't know 'tiger' was traditional. I have learnt something. Nov 4, 2008

  • bilby
    Eenie, meenie, minie, mo,
    Catch a tiger by the toe,
    If he hollers let him go,
    Eenie, meenie, minie, mo.
    - traditional. Nov 4, 2008

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‘holler’ has been looked up 2571 times, loved by 1 person, added to 21 lists, commented on 6 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.