ho

Interjection

ho

1. (nautical) Used to attract attention to something sighted, usually by lookouts.

   Sail ho! ― Another boat is visible!

   Land ho! ― Land is visible!

   Man ho! ― A town is visible!

2. halloo; hey; a call to excite attention, or to give notice of approach.
   • 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, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     What noise there, ho?

   • 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, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi]:

     Ho! who's within?

   • 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

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

   • c. 1600, John Ayliffe, Satires:

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

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

     "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.

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

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

   • 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 24:

     "How such swooning daughters can do it, constantly fainting and having hysterics, is a mystery to me," said Muriel Jane. "Ho, they're a pretty sly lot," said Silvander Dan.

3. (rare) Said accompanying a vigorous attack.
   • 1900, Ching Foo, the Yellow Dwarf; Or the Bradys and the Opium Smokers, page 2:

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

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

     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!"

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

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

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

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

Noun

ho

1. A stop; a halt; a moderation of pace.
   • 1604, Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore:

     There is no ho with them.

Alternative forms

• hoe

Noun

ho (plural hos or hoes or heaux)

2. (slang, derogatory) A whore; a sexually promiscuous woman; in general use as a highly offensive term of abuse for a woman with connotations of loose sexuality.

   Bros before hoes!

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

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

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

     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.

   • 2010, Dennis Shields, God Went Fishing‎, page 69:

     "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.

3. (slang, offensive) A woman in general; a bitch.

Verb

ho (third-person singular simple present hoes, present participle hoeing, simple past and past participle hoed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, slang, vulgar) To act as a ho, to prostitute.
   • 2003 November 18, Greywolf Johnson, “Do you know any of these? <g>”, in alt.strange.days‎ (Usenet):

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

Alternative forms

• hoe

Noun

ho (plural hos)

1. (obsolete) Care, anxiety, trouble, sorrow.
   • 1567, George Turberville, “A. Sani di Cure Aunsweres”, in Heroycall Epistles of Ovid, 155v:

     Though there bee A thousand cares that heape my hoe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alternative forms

• hoe

Verb

ho

1. (obsolete) To care, be anxious, to long.
   • 1787, F. Grose, Provinc. Gloss (at cited word):

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

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

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

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

     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.

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

     To ho and hanker after thik woman.

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

     Ho, to long for; to care greatly for.

Usage notes

• This interjection is used very frequently in Asturian, more than English man or bro, as such when translating to English many instances of "ho" would not be translated.
• Although "ho" was originally the adult male form, the children equivalent being nin, "ho" is now used extensively for either, without taking into account the receptor's gender or age, while "nin" has largely retained its connotations.
• "Ho" is usually only used at the end of phrases, "home" is used at the beginning.

Eso ye lo qu'hai de facer, ho ― That's what you gotta do, man

Home, eso ye lo qu'hai de facer ― Man, that's what you gotta do

Usage notes

• Ho cannot be used with either en or hi.
• ho is the reinforced (reforçada) form of the pronoun. It is used before verbs.

  Ho sabem. ― We know that.

• -ho is the full (plena) form of the pronoun. It is normally used after verbs.

  Puc fer-ho. ― I can do it.

  Deixa-ho. ― Leave it.

Declension

Derived terms

See also

• ha, he, hi, hæ, hø, hår

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) litero; a, bo, co, ĉo, do, e, fo, go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, i, jo, ĵo, ko, lo, mo, no, o, po, ro, so, ŝo, to, u, ŭo, vo, zo

See also

• hu