Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To seek the affection of with intent to romance.
- v. To seek to achieve; try to gain.
- v. To tempt or invite.
- v. To entreat, solicit, or importune.
- v. To court a woman.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To court; seek the favor, affection, or love of, especially with a view to marriage; solicit or seek in marriage.
- To solicit; sue; ask with importunity; seek to influence or persuade; invite; endeavor to prevail upon to do or to grant something.
- To seek; seek to obtain or bring about; act as if seeking to obtain or bring about.
- To court; make love; sue in love.
- To ask; seek; solicit.
- n. A Scotch form of wool.
- An old spelling of woe.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To endeavor to gain someone's support.
- v. transitive (of a man) To try to persuade a woman to marry him.
- interj. slang Expressing joy or mirth; woohoo, yahoo.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To solicit in love; to court.
- v. To court solicitously; to invite with importunity.
- v. To court; to make love.
WordNet 3.0
- v. seek someone's favor
- v. make amorous advances towards
Etymologies
- From Middle English wowen, woȝen, from Old English wōgian ("to woo, court, marry"), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots wow ("to woo"). Perhaps related to Old English wōg, wōh ("bending, crookedness"), in the specific sense of "bend or incline one toward oneself". If so, then derived from Proto-Germanic *wanhō (“a bend, angle”), from Proto-Indo-European *wonk- (“crooked, bent”), from Proto-Indo-European *wā- (“to bend, twist, turn”); related to Old Norse vá ("corner, angle"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English wowen, from Old English wōgian. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For those who aren\'t familiar with the term, \ "woo woo\" is a derogatory reference to almost any form of unconventional thinking, aimed by professional skeptics who are self-appointed vigilantes dedicated to the suppression of curiosity.”
“Taylor Swift's ridiculously entertaining new album, "Speak Now," is a lengthy, captivating exercise in woo-pitching, flame tending and score-settling -- with a heavy emphasis on the latter.”
The Washington Post: Album review: Taylor Swift, "Speak Now"
“Or would that depend on why the president thought he needed to dothat? woo is busy filming a shootout in a church.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Why Recalls of U.S. Senators Are Unconstitutional
“I realize now it's the "want to believe" that leads viewers to believe that the woo-woo is actually happening.”
“Obama is an idiot but less of one then John McCain – woo hoo Go Obama – this country is going down the toilet.”
“The awful part about pushing the mercury woo is that parents will be afraid to vaccinate their children and autistic children will be subjected to quack "cures" like chelation.”
“Giving up the woo is of course expected, so no hard feelings.”
“What I'm referring to as woo is the tendency to drag Eastern mystical thinking in, which just adds a cloak of confusion rather than casting any light on the subject.”
Just because entanglement is 'spooky' doesn't make it mystical
“It is high-handed because they lump brilliant speculative thinkers into one black box known as woo woo.”
“The unnatural construction of these molded seats is counterproductive to scooting up close to someone and pitching woo, which is of course where the love seat got its name.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘woo’.
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LIT - Odyssey - key words and phrases
Key words of the Odyssey by Homer in English including all those famous repeating epitethons like
"bright-eyed Athene"
"wine-dark sea"
"rosy-fingered dawn"
"long suf...yearling, wild celery, Wain, Themis, talon, slither, sedge, sea eagle, scurf, rile, prevaricate, poplar tree and 732 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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coax
cajole, blandish, inveigle, palaver, croodle, woo, charm, sweet-talk, tweedle, persuade, gentle, jolly and 5 more...
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lunathemoon's list
This is for those words that sound slang, but are actually formal terms.
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cross words
the good ole boys of the nyt crossword puzzle
oleo, oreo, stlo, amie, ares, eros, erato, sloe, ogee, apse, enola, ecru and 94 more...
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3LW
3 letter words, not the girl band.
boggle and speed scrabble would not be half as fun without them.aah, boa, dot, fun, ick, log, oca, pyx, sos, was, aal, bob and 342 more...
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whatever1013's Words
chocolate, sesquipedalophobia, discombobulated, callipygian, retronym, squirm, cobalt blue, plethora, onomatopoeia, blowhard, strumpet, shush and 173 more...
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sillygoose's Words
nefarious, waffle, dilettante, love, obstreperous, suggestible, fodder, plucky, trajectory, eclectic, juggernaut, demure and 115 more...
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mariposa417's Words
cerulean, jewel, malfeasance, precipice, crossroads, beautiful, adore, sublime, superfluous, poppy, monarch, lashes and 101 more...
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vozcelik's Words
cranny, tummy, nook, sinister, cajole, frugal, chafe, wimp, booger, patriarchy, indifference, mire and 162 more...
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Words. Just words.
Our chief weapons are words, that's all. Just words. Only words, not justly words, that is.
That is to say that there are only words in this list, not words that are just, although s...profligacy, monty, the arc of history, luddite, peremptory, brusque, languid, callipygian, perniciously, insidiousness, camelot, perforce and 189 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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pop ups
erstwhile, allegiance, sacked, reinstate, vengeance, affluent, sedative, maverick, caricatives, abandoned, faux pas, ambience and 245 more...
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♡LOVE and things like it♡
dedicated to my man Steven, without whom i would be addicted to drugs, lying in a gutter, hating myself, or hooking somewhere :)
affectionate, amative, amatory, amiable, ammophilous, amorous, ardent, attached to, attracted to, beloved, bewitching, bitten and 404 more...
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Spod's Words
corpulent, squidge, squiffy, sinuosity, ebullient, finger, penetrate, stimulate, recalcitrant, recidivist, dunnock, rococo and 152 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for woo.
gangerh Also means pseudo-science, in the slang of sceptics. Dec 2, 2008
bilby "Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover;
Something in the way she woos me..."
- George Harrison. Oct 6, 2008