Borrowed from Dharug guuu-wi, adopted into English by white settlers in Australia from 1790.
Meanings
(Australia, UK, informal) Used to attract someone's attention.
Then, raising her hands to her lips she utters a long, loud, piercing " Cooee ! "
" Coo — ee ! " comes back over the black waters. 1894, Temple Bar, volume 183, page 587:
Cooee! I'm over here!
2001, June E. Barker, First Platypus, Gaygar—The Little Mother Duck, in Helen F. McKay (editor), Pauline E. McLeod, Francis Firebrace Jones, June E. Barker, Gadi Mirrabooka: Australian Aboriginal Tales from the Dreaming, page 58,
Gaygar could hear her people cooee out to her, "COOEE, GAYGAR! COOEE, GAYGAR!" they would cry.
Borrowed from Dharug guuu-wi, adopted into English by white settlers in Australia from 1790.
Meanings
(Australia, informal, onomatopoeic) A long, loud call used to attract attention when at a distance, mainly done in the Australian bush.
2006, Saskia Beudel, Walking: West MacDonnell Ranges 2002, in Drusilla Modjeska, The Best Australian Essays 2006, page 309,
Just as I was preparing to write in my exercise book, I heard a cooee. Cooees were not part of the code.
Then they heard in the distance the "coo-ee" of a white man, which was instantly answered by another "coo-ee". 1943, H. Lorna Bingham, The Lost Tribe, Sydney: Winn and Co., page 32, column 1:
I call out, “Coo-ee” with long Coo and short ee like whip-bird call. Everybody in my mob know my cooee. Any one of my mob hear that, they give me cooee back.
I listen.
No cooee come back. 2002, Andrew Parkin, A Thing Apart, page 195:
(Australia, also, figuratively, informal, with "within") A short distance; hailing distance.
We were carless, in the dark, and no one to help within cooee. 1999, Tony Shillitoe, Joy Ride, page 136:
That is not within cooee of 10 per cent; it is much closer to six per cent. 1996, australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates Australia, volume 207, page 1469:
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
cooees
Number=Plur
lexicographic
cooey
alternative
lexicographic
coo-ee
alternative
lexicographic
Translations (2)
mi hū (a call as a signal) · mi whakahoho (a call as a signal)
Borrowed from Dharug guuu-wi, adopted into English by white settlers in Australia from 1790.
Meanings
(Australia, informal, intransitive) To make such a call.
2006, Saskia Beudel, Walking: West MacDonnell Ranges 2002, in Drusilla Modjeska, The Best Australian Essays 2006, page 310,
I cooeed back. Another cooee came in what seemed to be a reply. I cooeed again.
Slipping out of the tail of the dray, I cooeed as loud as I could which was answered. 2003, Les Hughes, A Young Australian Pioneer: Henry Mundy, page 225:
‘Look out for snakes,’ said Long Charlie, flourishing his lantern. ‘And don′t all of us be coo-eeing all the time, or when the little chap sings out we shan't be able to hear him.’ 2001, Robert Holden, Nicholas Holden, Bunyips: Australia's Folklore of Fear, page 65:
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
cooey
alternative
lexicographic
coo-ee
alternative
lexicographic
cooeed
Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
cooeed
Tense=Past
lexicographic
cooees
Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres
lexicographic
cooeeing
Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
Translations (2)
mi whakahoho (to call out as a signal) · mi hū (to call out as a signal)