holler, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

holler n.

(US) a complaint, a fuss, esp. to the police.

1894		C.H. Hoyt A Milk White Flag Act I: Well, take your medicine. (To Judge) What’s your holler?
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft If I make a touch [...] an’ the holler’s big, they’ll land me ’f they can.
1914		R. Lardner You Know Me Al (1984) 65: I thought the other boys would make a holler but they didn’t say nothing.
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] I figured that the Nebraska coppers had let out a big holler and I thought it best to lay kind of low and keep out of trouble.
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘I don’t think there’s going to be a hell of a lot of holler about Stein.’.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 253: We hollered the usual hollers back and forth.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1957		R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 156: There’d been a flurry and a holler and I’d had to do a bit in the clink, but I’d done it standing on my head, since only a few of the charges, like fomenting a riot and disturbing the peace and puncturing seventeen sets of automobile tyres, had stuck.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 803: holler – The plaint of a victim who ‘hollers’ for assistance; put up a ‘holler’.
1973		H. Armstrong in Heller In This Corner (1974) 210: Everybody gives him a big holler.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 68: Miles wakes up and goes right into a major holler.

In phrases

get one’s holler on (v.)

(US black) to talk to a woman with the intent of seduction.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 get ones holler on Definition: to talk to a bitch with the intention of getting some action. Example: Dat bitch is da bomb. I’m gonna get my holler on wit dat.

put up a holler (v.)

to make a fuss.

1903		Inter Ocean (Chicago) 25 Jan. 34/6: It’s not squealing to put up a holler for stuff you’ve been phonied out of.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 150: I never got no less’n seven encores an’ nachally the star puts up a holler.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 25: Sometimes the Johns (suckers) would go to Harrison Street Station and put up a holler.
1938		D. Runyon ‘For a Pal’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 577: I do not put up more of a holler and maybe attract the attention of the other guys.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 171/2: Put up a beef [...] Put up a holler. 1. To shout for police; to complain; to protest [...] Put up a squawk. See Put up a holler.