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shout

nounverbnouncommon in dialogue

  • Canada//ʃʌʊt//
  • //ʃaʊt//
  • //ʃuːt//

A loud burst of voice or voices; a violent and sudden outcry, especially that of a multitude expressing joy, triumph, exultation, anger, or great effort.

noun

  1. 1

    A loud burst of voice or voices; a violent and sudden outcry, especially that of a multitude expressing joy, triumph, exultation, anger, or great effort.

    give out a shout

    hear a desperate shout

    an ear-piercing shout

  2. 2

    slangA round of drinks in a pub; the turn to pay the shot or scot; an act of paying for a round of drinks.

    “I′ll get my wine though,” taking out her wallet. “No. This is my shout,” holding up his hand as though to ward her money off.

    Cut to the pub on a lads night out, Man at the bar cos it was his shout

    2008, George Papaellinas, The Trip: An Odyssey, re.press, Australia, page 6, It was always my shout down the pub with Theo.

  3. 3

    slangA call-out for an emergency services team.

    Yet another ambulance on a shout enters Parliament Square.

  4. 4

    informalA greeting, name-check or other mention, for example on a radio or TV program.

    Next up the new single from Beyoncé, but first a shout to Barry Bloggins and his wife Belinda...

  5. 5

    informalA suggestion; an idea.

    Yeah, good shout. We might get an idea of what we're up against before we park up and do business.

    “I...had a nap,” I said. “Good shout. Got to be strategic about these things. Jess went for a nap a couple of hours ago but hasn't resurfaced, so I think she's failed again this year.” I blinked. I didn't know what to say to him. “So, no one else make it?”

Etymology

From Middle English shouten. Further origin uncertain. Possibly related to Middle English shooten (“to shoot (out)”) or from or akin to Old Norse skúta (“to chide, scold”), Old Norse skúti, skúta (“a taunt”). See also the second, rare sense of the verb scout (“to reject with contempt”).

verb

  1. 1

    To utter a sudden and loud cry, as in joy, triumph, exultation or anger, or to attract attention, to animate others, etc.

    Mom shouted to us to come sit at the table.

    They shouted thrice; what was the last cry for?

    "I decided to do it [stand for election] because I'd been interested in politics for a long time and, like lots of people, had spent a lot of time shouting at the radio.

  2. 2

    To utter with a shout; to cry; to shout out

    They shouted his name to get his attention.

  3. 3

    figurativeTo forcefully attract attention or proclaim one’s presence.

    We walk’d together on the crown Of a high mountain which look’d down Afar from its proud natural towers Of rock and forest, on the hills— The dwindled hills! begirt with bowers And shouting with a thousand rills.

  4. 4

    slangTo pay for food, drink or entertainment for others.

    "It appears to be the general opinion that it's my business to always shout - I will shout." He took up a hat and defiantly cast twopence into it.

    After shouting me a plate of noodles and limp vegetables, he helped me change money by introducing me to the stallholder who offered the best exchange rates.

    2003, Peter Watt, To Chase the Storm, Pan MacMillan Australia, unnumbered page, ‘I have not seen my cousin Patrick in years,’ Martin answered defensively. ‘I doubt that, considering the way our lives have gone, an officer of the King′s army would be shouting me a drink in Mr O′Riley′s pub these days. […] ’

    Anyhow, he obviously bore no grudge against Kiwis, for he shouted me a beer and opened another one for himself, punctuating the operation with a spectacular and resounding fart that by all the laws of physical science should have left his trousers flapping in smouldering shreds.

  5. 5

    To post a text message (for example, email) in upper case, regarded as the electronic messaging equivalent of oral shouting.

    Please don't shout in the chat room.

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo treat with shouts or clamor.

    How would these men have shouted at the laying on of the last stone of the battlements

noun

  1. 1

    A flat-bottomed boat, a barge (for carrying cargo, etc), now especially a light boat used in duck-shooting.

    Although the density of the flour in particular would be less than that of the wheat, an equivalent 200 quarters of wheat per shout would not seem out of the question here. Again using Table 4, this suggests quite large boats carrying nearly 35 tons. If the 'Blackfriars 3' shout did indeed carry only 7.5 tons, then the shouts coming from Henley in 1345 were considerably bigger vessels, […]

Etymology

From Middle English shout(e), from Middle Dutch schûte (“boat or light ship”). Doublet of schuit, see there for more. Compare scout (“swift sailing boat”).

Forms

plural
shouts
past tense
shouted
past participle
shouted
present participle
shouting
third person singular
shouts
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).