hoot n.2
1. (orig. US, also two hoots) a very small amount; anything or anyone considered unimportant, insignificant.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Western Wilds 611: I got onto my reaper and banged down every hoot of it [wheat] before Monday night. | |
| Coshocton Trib. (OH) 23 Jan. 2/3: My neighbor Johnson plays the flute [...] He cannot play it worth a hoot. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Pioneers on Parade 218: The only thing that matters a hoot [...] is what you and Lucy think about it. | |
| ‘House Of Flowers’ Breakfast at Tiffany’s 154: Well, I can’t sleep a hoot. | |
| Whichaway (1967) 16: We sure haven’t done a hoot to be proud of. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Service of all the Dead (1980) 68: He told himself that it didn’t matter two hoots whether the Rawlinson woman was there or not. | |
| in Walking After Midnight (1989) 157: I don’t think in the long run it will make a hoot of difference. |
2. (US) a euph. for hell.
| (con. 1916) Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 10: He didn’t know what in hoot he wanted to say. |
In phrases
to care; usu. in negative use, e.g. who gives a hoot?
| Tekel 30: He did not care a hoot for anybody’s opinions but his own. | |
| Torchy 270: I don’t care a hoot what the Captain says, either. | |
| Caldwell Watchman (Columbia, LA) 3 Oct. 3/2: Not that you would be worth a hoot in hell to them. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 24 Mar. 10/1: The columns of expert dope from high-priced critics isn’t worth two hoots. | |
| Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 13 Nov. 11/2: Greig being dead does not care a hell’s hoot what we say. | |
| Young Man of Manhattan 232: Who gave a hoot what he looked like? | |
| Abderdeen Jrnl 17 Nov. 2/4: I don’t give too hoots about Nationalism and all the flim-flam of the exotic Natonalist. | |
| Capricornia (1939) 147: Not that the Protector cared a hoot whom Constance married. | |
| Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 35: Why would a stranger give a hoot because somebody came across the street in his direction? | |
| Mating Season 135: Did Nature care? Not a hoot. | |
| Come in Spinner (1960) 39: Who’s going to care two hoots how we live? | |
| Sundowners 217: A kid [...] hanging on to it’s mother’s tit, not caring a hoot about how the rest of the world was going. | |
| Long Good-Bye 294: All that means anything to you is playing the big shot. You don’t give a hoot in hell for anybody but yourself. | |
| Mad mag. Mar. 31: Floodnick, you nogoodnick ... I know you’re in ca-hoots with the owl-hoots and don’t give two hoots. | |
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 268: There were less than a half-dozen Angels who gave a hoot in hell what was happening on the Berkeley campus. | |
| Picture Palace 147: Don’t be ridiculous. No one really gives a hoot. | |
| Curse of the Vampire Socks 15: Will people give two hoots [...] when they / Are in their birthday suits? | |
| Guardian Rev. 1 Jan. 18: If nobody there gives two hoots, why should we care at all. | |
| Stoning 46: ‘[T]hey don’t give a hoot what they do to the place’. |