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

My late friend said it to me during the 1980’s, always about high winds, he was from Thurso in Scotland and I assumed it was Scots.

by K. Bridle 01 Aug 08, 0409 GMT