[f. prec.]
1. intr. To sound a catcall, esp. at a theater or similar place of amusement.
1734. Fielding, Univ. Gallant, Prol. ’Tis not the poet’s wit affords the jest, But who can catcall, hiss, or whistle best?
1762. Canning, in Poet. Register (1807), 455. ‘Let them cat-call and hiss as they will,’ cries old Hunks,
1820. Blackw. Mag., VIII. 5. Some catcalled, and some roared ‘go on.’
2. trans. To receive or assail with catcalls.
1700. Dryden, Prologue Pilgrim (R.).
| His Cant, like Merry Andrew’s Noble Vein, | |
| Cat-Call’s the Sects, to draw ’em in again. |
1843. Macaulay, Mad. D’Arblay, Ess. (1854), 711/2. Better to be hissed and catcalled by her Daddy than by a whole sea of heads in the pit of Drury Lane Theatre.
Hence Catcalling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
c. 1781. Mad. D’Arblay, in Macaulay, Ess. (1887), 748. That hissing, groaning, catcalling epistle.
1864. Daily Tel., 9 Dec., 2/1. The gods indulged in their usual habit of whistling and catcalling.
1881. Ld. W. Pitt Lennox, Plays, Players, &c. I. 77. A sound of hissing and cat-calling was now heard.
