hullabaloo

noun

hul·​la·​ba·​loo ˈhə-lə-bə-ˌlü 

plural hullabaloos

1

informal : a loud, continued noise or mixture of noises : din

Why do roosters crow? If they're like insects and frogs, that hullabaloo is an ad for a mate …

—Discover

Somebody heard the splash and they raised an awful hullabaloo. 'He's gone! Lower the boats! …'

—Joseph Conrad

… Hunt and her pack of highly trained dogs set off a hellacious hullabaloo, yelling and barking, discharging firecrackers …

—Christine Paige

2

informal : a state of commotion, excitement, or violent disturbance : uproar, fuss

Would there be such a hullabaloo about the violence in her books if they had been written by a man?

—Laura Z. Hobson

Sunday was a big day for the Philadelphia Phillies mascot … . It was his 40th birthday, and there was a big hullabaloo.

—Liz Roscher

There's been a lot of hullabaloo recently about the effects that grapefruit can have on certain meds.

—Chanie Kirschner

When I heard the series would finally be available to stream on Hulu, I decided to finally see what all the hullabaloo was about.

—Josh Sorokach

Synonyms

• ado
• alarums and excursions
• ballyhoo
• blather
• bluster
• bobbery
• bother
• bustle
• clatter
• clutter [chiefly dialect]
• coil
• commotion
• corroboree [Australian]
• disturbance
• do [chiefly dialect]
• foofaraw
• fun
• furor
• furore
• fuss
• helter-skelter
• hoo-ha
• hoo-hah
• hoopla
• hubble-bubble
• hubbub
• hurly
• hurly-burly
• hurricane
• hurry
• hurry-scurry
• hurry-skurry
• kerfuffle [chiefly British]
• moil
• pandemonium
• pother
• row
• ruckus
• ruction
• rumpus
• shindy
• splore [Scottish]
• squall
• stew
• stir
• storm
• to-do
• tumult
• turmoil
• uproar
• welter
• whirl
• williwaw
• zoo

Examples of hullabaloo in a Sentence

The announcement caused quite a hullabaloo.

The announcement caused a lot of hullabaloo.

There was a hullabaloo over his controversial statements.

There was a lot of hullabaloo over his controversial statements.

Recent Examples on the Web

Some cynics are bound to exhort that this isn’t worth much of a hullabaloo. —Lance Eliot, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024

But several weeks in, with the 49ers getting ready for their exhibition opener on Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., Kittle said everybody is just doing the work and doing their best to ignore the headlines and hullabaloo generated by the Aiyuk situation. —Tim Kawakami, The Athletic, 9 Aug. 2024

Colin O’Sullivan’s 2018 book, The Dark Manual, is a one-off, but then so is Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel, Dark Matter, and Apple TV+ just announced a second season of its namesake adaption of that dimension-hopscotching hullabaloo. —Chris Klimek, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2024

Two seasons ago, Brock Purdy got introduced to this 49ers-Cowboys hullabaloo when coach Kyle Shanahan showed highlights of their 1990s duels, before Purdy’s rookie season peaked with a divisional-round victory over Dallas. —Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 26 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

perhaps from hallo + Scots balloo, interjection used to hush children

First Known Use

1762, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing hullabaloo

• all the hullabaloo
• a lot of hullabaloo

Kids Definition

hullabaloo

noun

hul·​la·​ba·​loo ˈhəl-ə-bə-ˌlü 

plural hullabaloos

informal : uproar, din