Also 6–7 boe, 7 bough.
[A combination of consonant and vowel especially fitted to produce a loud and startling sound: cf. L. bo-āre, Gr. βοά-ειν to cry aloud, roar, shout.] An exclamation intended to surprise or frighten.
c. 1430. Lydg., Smyth & Dame, 407, in Hazl., E. P. P., III. 216. Speake now … And say ones, bo.
1575. Churchyard, Chippes (1817), 153. Beyond the reach of common peoples boe.
1672. R. Wild, Poet. Licent., 26. The Pope’s Raw-head-and-bloody-bones cry Boh Behind the door!
1829. Scott, Demonol., vi. 178. We start and are afraid when we hear one cry Boh!
1855. Browning, Holy-Cr. Day. Boh, here’s Barnabas!
b. Proverbial phr. To say or cry ‘bo’ to a goose, (also occas.) a battledore: to open one’s mouth, speak.
1588. Marprel. Ep. (Arb.), 43. He is not able to say bo to a goose.
1621. Bp. Mountagu, Diatribæ, 118. The clergy of this time were … not able to say bo to a battledore. Ibid. (1624), Gagg, To Rdr. 8. I could say … not so much as bough to a goose.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., liv. I could not say Bo to a goose.
1864. Miss Yonge, C’tess Kate, vii. 125. Dear me, Mary, can’t you say bo to a goose!
1866. Blackmore, Cradock Nowell, xxx. (1883), 166. Bob could never say ‘bo’ to a gosling of the feminine gender.
