int. [Variant of WHO int.]
† 1. Whoa ho ho, used to call attention from a distance. Obs.
1623. Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 187. Whoa hoe, hoe, Father Page. Ibid. (1623), Wint. T., III. iii. 79. He hallow’d but euen now. Whoa-ho-hoa.
2. A word of command to a horse or other draught-animal to stop or stand still; also used otherwise in conjunction with other words, as come hither whoa, gee-whoa, hait-whoa, whoa back. Hence used jocularly to a person as a command to stop or desist. (Cf. WOA.)
1849. W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, iii. (1850), 32. ‘Soh! whow!’ to his restive horses. ‘Whow! I tell you…. Whoa! I tell you.’
1862. Thoreau, Ess. Walking (1895), 22. Who but the Evil One has cried ‘Whoa!’ to mankind?
1865. Emily Dickinson, Lett. (1894), II. 256. Life … will run away, notwithstanding our sweetest whoa.
1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt, New Chum in Queensland Bush, ix. 195. Men shouting…: ‘Whoa back! Whoa back!’
1898. Hamblen, Gen. Manager’s Story, ix. 123. We were four minutes late, and as I shouted ‘whoa’ to Jack [the engine-driver], I could see that he was mad [i.e., angry].
Hence Whoa v., intr. to shout ‘whoa!’
1841. S. C. Hall, Ireland, I. i. 73. The Englishman … after ‘who-aing’ to his horse, looks over the hedge.
