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to whoa

to whoa

8.3
To tell a horse or animal to stop right away
  • verb
  • /woʊ/
translation icon : detener
  • The rider shouted whoa to his horse to make it stop quickly.

OK, we're just going to try to whoa, whoa, OK, we're just going to use that right now.

Examples

  • During the race, the trainer yelled whoa when he saw the horse nearing the finish line too fast.

  • As the car approached the traffic light, she shouted whoa to warn her friend to brace for the sudden stop.

  • We're going to whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

  • OK, we're just going to try to whoa, whoa, OK, we're just going to use that right now.

  • That means that I need to whoa, my gosh, I always forget about that.

  • I mean, do you want to whoa, that's a new sound effect.

  • And then the other one was petting the bus saying whoa, he thought it was a horse.

  • He just whoa now, does he think that's funny?

Synonyms

3 3.9

To suddenly stop moving or speaking because you are surprised

is an intentional command that makes someone or something stop suddenly
to hold one's horses
vsto whoa
  • Informal
1 7.2

Tell someone to wait and be patient

is an urgent command to stop immediately rather than to delay action

How Sudden

to slam on the brakes
  • Informal
6 3.2
to whoa
8.3
to come to a halt
  • Informal
13 3.4
to decelerate
10 5.5
to slow down
687 1.4

Surface Forms

whoa infinitive
whoaed past
whoaed past participle
whoaing present participle
whoas third person singular

Etymology

The verb whoa comes from that same rider's shout to tell a horse to 'stop', so to whoa an animal (or to whoa something) is to cause it to stop quickly.