cooee
/ˈkuːʷiː/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.75 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A long, loud call used to attract attention when at a distance, mainly done in the Australian bush.
Australian usage; Informal
Example Sentences
- "Then they heard in the distance the "coo-ee" of a white man, which was instantly answered by another "coo-ee"."
- "I call out, “Coo-ee” with long Coo and short ee like whip-bird call. Everybody in my mob know my cooee. Any one of my mob hear that, they give me cooee back. I listen. No cooee come back."
- "2006, Saskia Beudel, Walking: West MacDonnell Ranges 2002, in Drusilla Modjeska, The Best Australian Essays 2006, page 309, Just as I was preparing to write in my exercise book, I heard a cooee. Cooees were not part of the code."
- "That is not within cooee of 10 per cent; it is much closer to six per cent."
- "We were carless, in the dark, and no one to help within cooee."
- "‘Look out for snakes,’ said Long Charlie, flourishing his lantern. ‘And don′t all of us be coo-eeing all the time, or when the little chap sings out we shan't be able to hear him.’"
Etymology
Usage
- Australian usage
- Informal
- Intransitive verb
- British usage