Definition of "hoot" []

• To utter the characteristic cry of an owl. (verb-intransitive)
• To make a loud raucous cry, especially of derision or contempt. (verb-intransitive)
• To shout down or drive off with jeering cries: hooted the speaker off the platform. (verb-transitive)
• To express or convey by hooting: hooted their disgust. (verb-transitive)
• The characteristic cry of an owl. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "July 13th, 2009 2: 16 pm ET what's a hoot is this woman could be as dumb as a box of rocks ... and because she's hispanic ... she's the 'one."
• "It was probably a hoot of a character to watch when audiences didn't know who he was as well as they were about to --- The Odd Couple's just a few years in the future --- but looking back forty years now the hoot is in seeing him doing what would become his stock in trade, the grouchy, rumpled, slightly amoral cynic with a good heart somewhere underneath it all."
• "I would never use the word hoot, and I respectfully ask that every time my name is brought up she would stop using the word "hoot.""