Forms: 5 Sc. qwe, whewe, 6 Sc. quhew, 7, 9 dial. whue, 9 wheugh, 7– whew. [Echoic.]
† 1. A musical instrument, a pipe. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 6051. For to wacche and to wake for wothis of harme, With qwistlis & qwes, & other qwaint gere.
c. 1475. Cath. Angl., 415/2 (Addit. MS.). A Whewe, fistula.
2. A sound as of whistling or of something rushing through the air; spec. the cry of the plover.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xi. 46. Than from the hevin dovne quhyrland wyth a quhew Come queyne Juno.
c. 1610. Robin Hood & Curtall Fryer, xxxi. (Ritson). The fryer set his fist to his mouth, And whuted whues three.
1710. Ruddiman, Gloss. Douglas’s Æneis, Quhew, the sound which a bird’s wings make in the air. Scot. Bor. a Few, vox ex sono conficta.
a. 1784. Rookhope Ryde, x. in Scott, Minstrelsy. Then oer the moss, where as they came, With many a brank and whew.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. VI. The whew of lead still singing in their ears.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xiii. 289. The yelping of the guid-guid, and the sudden whew-whew of the cheucau.
1851. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm (ed. 2), II. 22. The shrill whew of the plover.
3. An utterance of the interjection whew!
1751. Smollett, Per. Pickle, xxii. [xix]. He uttered a long and loud whew! which was succeeded by an exclamation of ‘Damn my old shoes! a bite by G—!’
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. iii. A sound from the old oak, like an ‘ah’ or a ‘whew.’
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xix. At sight of which Yeo gave a long wheugh.
4. (Also whew-duck) = WHEWER.
1804. Bewick, Brit. Birds, 1II. 352. Wigeon. Whewer, Whim, or Pandled Whew.
1852. Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, V. 83. Mareca Penelope. The European Wigeon. Common Wigeon. Whew Duck. Pandle-Whew.
