Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1793-1818, 1885
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
HOOLETY, adj. Also howlaty. Owl-like.
Comb. hoolety-hoo, the hoot of an owl; the bird itself.Peb. 1793 R. Brown Carlop Green (1817) 125:
The guid grieve ayont the dyke, The lang hoolety-hoo, The whawp, frae the south.Slk. 1818 Hogg B. of Bodsbeck xii.:
To scare the howlaty face o' him away, an' learn him to keep his ain side o' the water.Lth. 1885 J. Strathesk Blinkbonny 182:
An eerie, ugly skraigh that I like waur than a hoolet's "hoolety-hoo."
You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Hoolety adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 16 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/hoolety>
