yahoo

¹ American  

[yah-hoo] / ˈyɑˈhu /

interjection

1. (an exclamation used to express joy, excitement, etc.)

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Yahoo ² American  

[yah-hoo, yey-, yah-hoo] / ˈyɑ hu, ˈyeɪ-, yɑˈhu /

noun

plural

Yahoos

1. (in Swift'sGulliver's Travels ) one of a race of brutes, having the form and all the vices of humans, who are subject to the Houyhnhnms.

2. (lowercase) an uncultivated or boorish person; lout; philistine; yokel.

3. (lowercase) a coarse or brutish person.

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yahoo British  

/ jəˈhuː /

noun

1. a crude, brutish, or obscenely coarse person

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Other Word Forms

• yahooism noun

Etymology

Origin of yahoo¹

First recorded in 1975–80; of imitative origin

Origin of Yahoo²

Coined by Swift in Gulliver's Travels (1726)

Example Sentences

Back on 1, Lee Westwood cracks the opening drive of match three down the middle, refusing to follow the advice of the yahoo who cried “Get in the bunker!”

From The Guardian • Sep. 24, 2021

Turns out that yahoo was Thunderpussy die-hard Mike McCready, who happens to play guitar in one of Earth’s biggest rock bands, Pearl Jam.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 6, 2021

Even by that stingy proposal, though, Rounds looks like something of a free-spending yahoo relative to his conference.

From Slate • May 6, 2020

Her father, meanwhile, “was this, as he put it, yahoo from Missouri,” Ms. Sifton told the San Diego Reader.

From Washington Post • Dec. 21, 2019

“Some yahoo pulled up to the wrong gate. There’s not supposed to be anyone at that gate until the Cleveland flight at nine thirty.”

From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix