woo
to seek the favor, affection, or love of, especially with a view to marriage.
to seek to win: to woo fame.
to seek the affection or love of someone, usually a woman; court: He was reminded of his youth when he went wooing.
to solicit favor or approval; entreat: Further attempts to woo proved useless.
Origin of woo
1Other words for woo
Other words from woo
- wooer, noun
- woo·ing·ly, adverb
- un·wooed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use woo in a sentence
That makes sense when you consider its CEO — Ben Kaufman, previously the chief commerce officer and chief marketing officer at BuzzFeed behind the brand’s buzzy forays into retail that further wooed over millennials.
‘A retail media company’: How CAMP wants its online content to eventually drive customers back to stores | Kayleigh Barber | February 3, 2021 | DigidayIt could get worse if unrestricted free agent Romeo Okwara, the ninth-best pass rusher of 2020 per Pro Football Focus, is wooed by another club.
Last privately valued at more than $1 billion, according to equity-tracker PitchBook, Symphony could be a handy add-on for a cloud company interested in wooing Wall Street.
5 software acquisitions Salesforce’s Slack deal could spur | rhhackettfortune | December 4, 2020 | FortuneThat might sound too woo-woo, too undisciplined to crack the sophisticated surface of a modern poem, but I found it takes a lot more discipline to withhold one’s judgment, to muzzle one’s consternation and simply let the lines work.
I didn’t think I understood modern poetry. The less I tried to get it, the more I came to love it. | Ron Charles | December 4, 2020 | Washington PostThe terms were enough for a16z to win the deal against some tough competition, including Benchmark, which was also trying to woo Github at the time, as general partner, Peter Fenton, said recently.
A16z is now managing $16.5 billion, after announcing two new funds | Natasha Mascarenhas | November 20, 2020 | TechCrunch
Going northward would antagonize Iraqi Sunnis, whom Washington and Baghdad are currently wooing.
There’s Only One Way to Beat ISIS: Work With Assad and Iran | Leslie H. Gelb | October 18, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut it was his younger brother Maurice who did the important work of wooing and schmoozing the clients.
Charles Saatchi: From Saatchi & Saatchi to Allegedly Choking Nigella Lawson | Peter Jukes | June 18, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTForget a sensitive GOP, a nurturing GOP, a warm-and-fuzzy, women-wooing GOP.
Squishes, Step Aside: Ted Cruz and Chris Christie’s Old-School Manliness | Michelle Cottle | May 13, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIt will take significant wooing in the brick-and-mortar world to lure them into the virtual one.
Fashion of a Certain Age New Website Halsbrook.com Caters to Mature Shoppers | Robin Givhan | November 4, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTTo compete with Netanyahu, Labor's calling for a "big-tent" party and is wooing former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni.
In starting out upon this simultaneous wooing, you forget that Mr. Devenish has already had his turn this morning alone.
First Plays | A. A. MilneTalking of his wooing afresh of Mrs. Lane, and of his going to serve the Bishop of London.
Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete | Samuel PepysThe river's song should have summoned up the vision of those living waters, and their wooing, "Let him that is athirst come!"
Alone | Marion HarlandHer thoughts were all secret; her heart was locked and bolted; and he stood without, vainly wooing her with his eves.
Tales and Fantasies | Robert Louis StevensonWas Deuceace sincere in his professions of love, or was he only a sharper wooing her for her money?
Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush | William Makepeace Thackeray
British Dictionary definitions for woo
/ (wuː) /
to seek the affection, favour, or love of (a woman) with a view to marriage
(tr) to seek after zealously or hopefully: to woo fame
(tr) to bring upon oneself (good or evil results) by one's own action
(tr) to beg or importune (someone)
Origin of woo
1Derived forms of woo
- wooer, noun
- wooing, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with woo
see pitch woo.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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