whoopee
whoopee Lexical Profile
whoopee Game Scores & Validity
• interjection
Used to express exuberant joy, excitement, or celebration, or conversely used ironicaly to indicate boredom and a lack of enthusiasm.
"Whoopee, another three-hour budget meeting on a Friday afternoon."
• noun
Boisterous, noisy merrymaking, celebration, or joyous excitement (especially in the phrase 'make whoopee').
"The winning team spent the entire night making whoopee at a downtown restaurant."
A humorous, informal euphemism for sexual activity or intimacy (used in the phrase 'make whoopee').
"The old game show host always blushed whenever contestants joked about making whoopee."
Word Nuance & Usage
As an interjection, 'whoopee' is frequently used with heavy sarcasm or irony to express complete lack of enthusiasm for trivial news. As a noun in the phrase 'make whoopee', it is an dated, playful euphemism for either boisterous celebrating or sexual intimacy.
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the late 19th century as an expressive extension of the verb 'whoop'. The phrase 'making whoopee' was popularized in the late 1920s by columnist Walter Winchell and the 1928 Broadway musical 'Whoopee!' starring Eddie Cantor.