dial. Also 8 whilly lou, 9 whillaluh, whillilu, whillilew, whillalew. [Ir. uileliugh. Cf. ULULU.] A cry or song of lamentation; an outcry, uproar, hubbub.
1790. Jas. Fisher, Poems, 65. She’s sleeping now! Yet wakens wi’ a greeting eye, An’ whilly lou.
1800. Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent, Tales 1832, I. 5. Then such a fine Whillaluh! you might have heard it to the farthest end of the county. [Ibid., 100. The declining taste for the Ullaloo in Ireland.]
1820. Hogg, Winter Even. Tales, I. 162. What whillilu is that, Thou keep’st a trilling at?
1841. Lever, O’Malley, lxxx. And sure I set up a whillilew myself in the Black Horse square, and the devils only laughed at me.
