Definition of "ho"

What noise there, ho?

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]

Ho! who's within?

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene vi]

O ho, O ho! Would't had been done!

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

Ho! all ye females that would live unshent, / Fly from the reach of Cyned's regiment.

c. 1600, John Ayliffe, Satires

"That was a shot! But the captain will be glad! Ho, ho, here we are!" he cried till it was re-echoed from all the hills around.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 93

"So I catch you. You stealer! Ho! Ho!"

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 11

"I'll hit you again, you thief !” he cried angrily, shaking “Ho-ho-ho!” he croaked.

1900, Ching Foo, the Yellow Dwarf; Or the Bradys and the Opium Smokers, page 2

It was quite an astonishing show. Colonel Paul Malone of the U.S. Army kept thwacking away with all his might and main, shouting "Ho!"

1955, John Sack, From Here to Shimbashi - Volume 637, page 172

Mona: Hee! Ha! Ho! Ha! The brain buffet is closed, buddy! Take that! And this!

1999, Mona the Vampire, "Attack of the Living Scarecrow" (season 1, episode 1a)

Ho! Take that vile Foresythe!” He snapped his wrist, clicking the stick against the bowed sides of a barrel.

2008, Daniel Hellmund, The Answer for Laria, page 93

There is no ho with them.

1604, Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore

So you want to see the show? You really don't have to be a ho.

2001, “Psycho”, in Toxicity, performed by Serj Tankian with System of a Down

They was saying the jawn freaked out and called the cops cause all her sorority sistahs started ragging on her and calling her a stank ho for fucking half the basketball team.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World/Ballantine Books, page 204

"You looking for one of my ho's?" the diminutive man asked Sigmund."A hoe?" Sigmund asked, wondering why the little man wished to sell him farming equipment in the city."You know, a ho. A tute. A honey, A righteous bit of poontang, my brother," he said."I don't follow," Sigmund said."Indubitably, I means a ho, a whore. I can tell you is a player. You want a whore?" he asked.

2010, Dennis Shields, God Went Fishing‎, page 69

She holds down a decent job during the day, but is secretly hoeing around with at least 5 different trifling men.

2003 November 18, Greywolf Johnson, “Do you know any of these? <g>”, in alt.strange.days‎ (Usenet)

Though there bee A thousand cares that heape my hoe.

1567, George Turberville, “A. Sani di Cure Aunsweres”, in Heroycall Epistles of Ovid, 155v

Him that..this gentlewoman is in such a hoe about.

1798, Charlotte Turner Smith, The Young Philosopher, I. 195

But by day to the zun they must riseTo their true lives o' tweil an' ov ho.

1869-70, William Barnes, “The Widow’s House”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect‎

I doänt see as you've any call to putt yourself in no such terrible gurt hoe over it.

1875, William Douglas Parish, A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect‎ (at cited word)

To ho for anything, to long for any thing. Berks.

1787, F. Grose, Provinc. Gloss (at cited word)

Ho...to long for anything; to be careful and anxious. West.

1847-78, J. O. Halliwell, Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words

But still 'tis happiness to know That there's a God above us; An' he, by day an' night do ho Vor all ov us an' love us.

1869-70, William Barnes, The Bells of Alderburnham, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect

To ho and hanker after thik woman.

1874, T. Hardy, Far from Madding Crowd, II. xxiii. 289

Ho, to long for; to care greatly for.

1888, B. Lowsley, Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases