Dictionary definition of “blow a hoolie”

blow a hoolie

v. phr. (of weather) to storm; to forcefully gust, blow, and rain. Subjects: English, United Kingdom, Slang

Editorial Note: The stand-alone hoolie ‘a severe storm’ is rare outside of the blow a hoolie construction. It is sometimes spelled hooley. Etymological Note: Perhaps connected to hooley defined by Jonathon Green’s Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang as “a rip-roaring party” and marked as originally Irish, though the sense has a history in the US as well.

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Citations: 1990 Anthony Cox Times (London, England) (Apr. 2) “Ready to ride the wild waves”: THE adventure begins when it is “blowing a hoolie.” That is a high wind to those uninitiated in the ways of the fast-growing watersport of windsurfing. 1992 Jessica Baldwin @ Platform Viking B, North Sea (AP) (Nov. 27) “Safety-First Offshore, Four Years After Disaster”: Nine times out of 10, it’s blowing a hoolie out there with high winds and seas.…We’ve had an 86-foot wave, so you’re going from one hazardous environment to another. The men need to have a safe refuge. [1992 Jackie Burdon Press Association (U.K.) (Dec. 24) “Yacht Race Crews Endure Christmas At Sea”: The boat will have a festive look, provided we are not in the midst of a Southern Ocean hoolie.] 1992 Nicole Swengley Independent (London, England) (Dec. 27) “Home is where the yurt is” p. 49: Houses made from wool? More like pulling it over our eyes. What if it rains or blows a hoolie? Living in a tent might be fine for nomads in warmer climes, but camping out in Britain is hardly a cushy option. 1994 [Jeremy Johnson] Usenet: rec.windsurfing (Dec. 8) “Re: PBA sailnumbers?”: It’s blowing a hooley out there. 2002 Stephen Wade @ Gullane, Scotland (AP) (July 20) “Cold, driving rain and stiff winds send scores soaring at British Open”: I was lucky in that I played five or six holes without rain, but it was blowing hoolie (gale). 2004 Rhiann Salmon Felix Salmon (May 10) “Hoolie”: It is, as the title suggests, blowing an absolute hoolie outside and I fear I have been over-romanticising Antarctica in my latest scrawls. I have not seen the sun for a week. I have been outside, for more than five minutes, three times only. I have been lifted off my feet, fallen on my face, clung onto a handline for fear of never seeing a building again and have turned all the instruments in my lab off until the storm passes. [2005 John Dempsey BirdBlog (Lancashire, England) (Sept. 30) “Waterproof barn owl”: Yesterday’s raging hooley brought over 20 Leach’s petrels into Liverpool Bay.] 2006 The Ships Cat (Apr. 22) “Day VII”: Awoke early and felt the rig rolling slightly, bacon roll and paperwork in hand, I opened the watertight door onto the maindeck to find it raining and blowing a hooley…the wind is so strong it is beating the waves flat…got to be 35—45 knots at the moment!

Posted 9 May 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

i first used the term in 1986, conversationally. i don’t know if i made it up or had heard it elsewhere; but i suspect the former.

by Reuben Woolnough 10 Mar 08, 1225 GMT