whoa
- 01 C2 Proficiency
to tell an animal, like a horse, to stop by saying the word 'whoa'.
to command an animal to slow down or stop by vocalising the interjection 'whoa'.
Simple“The rider tried to whoa the horse as they approached the gate.”
In context“The farmer managed to whoa the team of oxen just before they reached the edge of the muddy bank.”
UsageUsed transitively, meaning the verb takes the animal as its object.
Teacher's tipThis verb use is quite rare and mostly found in rural or equestrian contexts.
Whoa (c. 1843) is a variant of woa (c. 1840), itself a variant of wo (c. 1787), from who (c. 1450), ultimately from Middle English ho, hoo (interjection), probably from Old Norse hó! (interjection, also, a shepherd's call). Compare German ho, Old French ho ! (“hold!, halt!”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.