Forms: 5 Sc. quhewe, 7 wheu heu, 7–8 wheu, 8 whieu, whu, 8–9 whuh, 9 wheugh, 6– whew. An exclamation of the nature of a whistle uttered by a person as a sign of astonishment, disgust, dismay, etc.
The identity of the word in the first quot. is uncertain.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxix. 4949 (MS. Auchinl.). Ȝhit þai wiþin set wp a schout And cryit lowde and said ‘Quhewe! [v.r. Quhow] Now haif we heire the Montagew.’
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 30. A plague vpon’t, when Theeues cannot be true one to another. They Whistle. Whew: a plague light vpon you all.
1601. W. Percy, Cuckqueanes, etc. III. iv. (Roxb.), 38. Don. … Come on thy ways. Joi. I come. Pig. Wheu heu, wheu heu, now goe thy wayes.
1728. Ramsay, The Lure, 110. Whieu,—Whieu,—he whistled.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. xxii. Whu—v—w—whew—w—w—whuved Margarita. Ibid. (1766), IX. xxxiii. Wheu—u—u— cried my father; beginning the sentence with an exclamatory whistle.
1770. Cumberland, West Indian, II. viii. Whuh! What’s the hurry the man’s in?
1800. E. D. Clarke, in Life (1824), v. 433. And now let the scene change—Whew!—away with inscriptions!
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxix. ‘But how did your joint production look the next morning?’… ‘Wheugh! capital—not three words required to be altered.’
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xliv. Whew! said the housebreaker, wiping the perspiration from his face.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xxxii. ‘Whew!’ ejaculated Roden, when the danger seemed to be past, and they could breathe again.
