1825–35; imitative; see ha-ha 1
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But their neighbors, the Bailey family, have spent the cold-war years lining their nests and crying haw-haw at C.D., except for daughter Lenore, who is devoted both to Chuck Conner and radiochemistry.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was quite impossible to keep from laughing at this ludicrous situation, especially when the doctor's great "haw-haw" made the air tremble.
From Molly Brown's Sophomore Days by Speed, Nell
But there is the haw-haw fence between them.
From When Ghost Meets Ghost by De Morgan, William Frend
He was quite a young chap this, a conceited puppy, affecting the "haw-haw," which seems to be epidemic in the British Army.
From My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War by Van Breda, P.
The dear thing! thought Jones, who saw him, a tall, thin-lipped beast of a brute, with a haw-haw manner and an arrogant air.
From The Paliser case by Saltus, Edgar
The last person to be convicted under the separate and more serious Treason Act of 1351 was William Joyce, a World War II Nazi propaganda broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2022
West’s account of the trial of William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw, the British fascist and Nazi propagandist who was executed in 1946 for treason, is an odd read.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 2, 2017
Game changing news in the Fifa corruption war, as Qatar unveils its Lord Haw-Haw.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 4, 2014
Early in the war John turned up in Germany, broadcast Nazi propaganda, was dubbed the Irish Haw-Haw.
From Time Magazine Archive
The tall, gaunt figure of Haw-Haw Langley came on tiptoe from behind, beheld the dead face, and grinned; a nervous convulsion sent a long ripple through his body, and his Adam's-apple rose and fell.
From The Night Horseman by Brand, Max
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
