whoa

interjectionverbtop 1 000 in film dialogue

United Kingdom//wəʊ//
United Kingdom//ʍəʊ//
United States//woʊ//
United States//ʍoʊ//

Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.

interjection

1
Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.
Whoa, Nelly!
The Negroes, having waited for the white people to go upstairs, began to come in. “Whoa now, just a minute,” said a club member, holding up his walking stick. “Just don’t start up them there stairs yet awhile.”
I can see Mickie getting hot, I'm about to grab his arm, hold him back, say, Whoa, whoa, Mick, not here, it ain't worth it what happened inside just now.
2
An expression of surprise.
Whoa, are you serious?
Whoa. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?
Jen: Douglas has asked me to be his PA. Moss: Oh. My. God! Well, that is something and a half. His PA? How... Whoa! His PA... Shut up! His PA! Jen: It means "personal assistant". Moss: Thank you. Right, OK.
3
Used as a meaningless filler in song lyrics.
I am the type who is liable to snipe you With two seconds left to go, whoa.
And oh whoa girl, it's a shame. Oh whoa girl, it's a doggone shame.

Etymology

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!”).

verb

1
To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa".
He was whoaing the horses loudly, and they did seem to be going faster than usual—in fact, they were galloping.

Forms

past tense: whoaed
past participle: whoaed
present participle: whoaing
third person singular: whoas

whiz · To make a whirring or hissing sound, similar to that of an…who · What person or people; which person or people; asks for the…Who · The television show Doctor Who.

whoa · Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.

whoever · Who ever: an emphatic form of who.whole · Entire, undivided.wholesale · The sale of products, often in large quantities, to retailers…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical 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.