hee-haw

hee-haw

See also: heehaw

English

Alternative forms

• heehaw
• hee haw

Etymology

Onomatopoeic coinage.

Noun

hee-haw (countable and uncountable, plural hee-haws)

1. (countable) The cry of an ass or donkey.
2. (uncountable, Scotland, slang) Nothing.
   • 2010, Grant Lauchlan, Daily Record, 30 Apr 2010:

     Apart from one cool fight sequence, she pretty much does hee-haw - just like Iron Man.

   • 2010, Bill Leckie, The Scottish Sun, 27 Sep 2010:

     People like Dick Advocaat, who knew hee-haw about Scottish football's history, set about whittling away little bits of our tradition on the grounds... well, let's be honest, that they were an inconvenience.

Synonyms

• bray

Translations

cry

Bulgarian: магарешки рев (magareški rev) Dutch: ia (nl) Finnish: (aasin) kiljunta, (aasin) hirnunta French: hi-han (fr) m

German: i-ah m Russian: и-а́ n (i-á) Spanish: rebuzno (es) m Vietnamese: be be (vi)

Interjection

hee-haw

1. The cry of an ass or donkey.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhiː.hɔ̰̃ː/ (♪: ˉˍ)
• The cry of an ass or donkey.

Translations

cry

Czech: iá Dutch: ia (nl) Finnish: ihaa French: hi-han (fr) German: ia (de) Hungarian: iá

Navajo: shíshąʼ Russian: и-а́ (i-á) Scottish Gaelic: (horse) u i o hòmh, (donkey) hi homh homh Spanish: rebuzno (es) m Turkish: ai (tr) (aa-i, a-i, aaa-ii, ...) Vietnamese: hô hố

Verb

hee-haw (third-person singular simple present hee-haws, present participle hee-hawing, simple past and past participle hee-hawed)

1. (intransitive) To utter the cry of an ass or donkey.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

     The ladies were not much the wiser, though, I confess, they were not far removed from the door. The great men inside talked indistinctly and technically, and once Doctor Dillon was so unfeeling as to crack a joke—they could not distinctly hear what—and hee-haw brutally over it.