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Boo vs Hiss - What's the difference?

boo | hiss | Related terms |

In intransitive terms the difference between boo and hiss

is that boo is to shout extended boos derisively while hiss is to make a hissing sound.

In transitive terms the difference between boo and hiss

is that boo is to derisively shout extended boos at while hiss is to utter with a hissing sound.

As an interjection boo

is a loud exclamation intended to scare someone, especially a child. Usually used when one has been hidden from the victim and then suddenly appeared unexpectedly.

boo

English

Etymology 1

Coined to create a loud and startling sound. Compare Latin .

Interjection

(en interjection)
  • A loud exclamation intended to scare someone, especially a child. Usually used when one has been hidden from the victim and then suddenly appeared unexpectedly.
  • A word used ironically in a situation where one might have scared someone, but said someone was not scared. Not said as loudly as in definition 1.
  • An exclamation used by a member or many members of an audience, as at a stage play or sports game, to indicate derision or disapproval of what has just occurred.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A derisive shout made to indicate disapproval.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2010 , date=December 29 , author=Sam Sheringham , title=Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=...Hodgson headed down the tunnel with the boos of fans ringing in his ears after an eighth league defeat of the season...}}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To shout extended boos derisively.
    • When he took the podium, the crowd booed .
  • * 2004 , The New Yorker, 18 Oct 2004
    • Nobody booed and nobody clapped
  • To derisively shout extended boos at.
    • The protesters loudly booed the visiting senator.

    Etymology 2

    From beau.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (US, AAVE, slang) A close acquaintance or significant other.

    • Anagrams

    * * ----

    hiss

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • A high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.
  • An expression of disapproval made to sound like the noise of a snake.

    • Verb

  • To make a hissing sound.
    • As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.
    The arrow hissed through the air.
  • * Wordsworth
    • Shod with steel, / We hissed along the polished ice.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 14 , author=John Elkington , title=John Elkington , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=It turns out that the driver of the red Ferrari that caused the crash wasn't, as I first guessed, a youngster, but a 60-year-old. Clearly, he had energy to spare, which was more than could be said about a panel I listened to around the same time as the crash. Indeed, someone hissed in my ear during a First Magazine awards ceremony in London's imposing Marlborough House on 7 December: "What we need is more old white men on the stage."}}
  • To condemn or express contempt for by hissing.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxvii. 36
    • The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee.
  • * Shakespeare
    • if the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them
  • To utter with a hissing sound.
  • * Tennyson
    • the long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise