tu-whit tu-whoo

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a conventional imitation of an owl's cry, especially the paired calls associated with tawny owls

   The old poem gives the owl's call as tu-whit tu-whoo.

Imitative of an owl's calls. The paired formula is recorded in English from the late sixteenth century and was popularized in literary representations of owl song. Tu-whit conventionally represents the sharper contact call, while tu-whoo represents the answering hoot; the phrase is often treated as one lexical unit.

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