[Imitative of the sound.]
1. intr. To make the soft murmuring sound or note characteristic of doves and pigeons.
1670. Dryden, Conq. Granada, II. I. ii. So, two kind turtles … sit alone, And coo, and harken to each other’s moan.
1714. Gay, Sheph. Week, v. 29. As the Wood Pidgeon cooes without his Mate.
1789. G. White, Selborne, II. xlii. (1853), 275. Doves coo in an amorous and mournful manner.
1815. Wordsw., Wks., i. Pref. 25. The stock-dove is said to coo, a sound well imitating the note of the bird.
1887. Besant, The World went, ii. 14. The doves cooed sleepily from the dovecot.
b. reduplicated.
1879. R. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. County, 213. The dove may be heard … coo-cooing still more softly … to her mate.
2. transf. To utter a sound like that of a dove; esp. said of an infant.
1736. Eliza Stanley, trans. Hist. Prince Titi, 11. He was perpetually smiling or cooing … he never cried, nay did not so much as whimper.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Dom. Life, Wks. (Bohn), III. 42. Between his three or four sleeps, he [the Baby] coes like a pigeon-house.
1885. H. C. McCook, Tenants of Old Farm, 233. As he cooed on in this way he applied the web like a plaster to the torn flesh.
3. To converse caressingly or amorously; usually in phr. to bill and coo: see BILL v.2 3.
1816–7. Byron, To T. Moore. What are you doing now, Oh Thomas Moore?… Billing or cooing now, Which, Thomas Moore?
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. 295. Jenny and Jessamy … billing and cooing in an arbour.
4. trans. a. To utter or express by cooing. b. To send to rest, etc., by cooing.
1798. B. Johnson, Orig. Poems, 73. No longer now he … cooes the praise of ev’ry fair.
1814. S. Rogers, Jacquel., II. 3. The doves had cooed themselves to rest.
1834. Fraser’s Mag., X. 444. A pair of turtle-doves lived in one nest, and cooed their love on the same branch.
1891. Wingfield, Maid of Hon., II. xviii. 262. ‘The good Marquise,’ she cooed. ‘The dear excellent Marquise.’
