tooraloo

English

Interjection

tooraloo

1. (Ireland, Australia) Goodbye.
   • c. 1921, D.H. Lawrence, Phoenix II:

     So long! See you soon! Too-ra-loo!

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     —Toraloo, Lenehan said. See you later.

   • 1966, Joseph Dolan, “Nelson’s Farewell”, as covered by The Dubliners, Transatlantic Records:

     So poor Admiral Nelson, toora loo

   • 1984, William Carlos Williams, The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams, New Directions,, →ISBN, page 184:

     Tooraloo, must get at the new White Mule. […] I didn’t set out to write a letter as long as this. What the hell’s the matter with me?

2. Variation of tura-lura.
   • 1837, Samuel Lover, “The Burial of the Tithe”, Legends and Stories of Ireland, series 2, Baldwin and Cradock, page 68:

     Here, a lark sprang up at his feet and darted into the air with its thrilling rush of exquisite moldy.―“Faith, you’ve given me my answer sure enough, my purty lark—that’s as much as to say, they may go whistle for them—oh, my poor fellows, how I pity yiz;”―and here he broke into a “too ra lal loo” and danced along the path:—then suddenly dropping into silence he resumed his walk, and applying his hand behind his head, cocked up his caubeen* and began to rub behind his ear, according to the most approved pleasant practice of assisting the powers of reflection.

Verb

tooraloo (third-person singular simple present tooraloos, present participle tooralooing, simple past and past participle tooralooed)

1. To express as in song.
   • 1917, William Sydney Porter, “The snow man”, in Waifs and strays, Doubleday, page 115:

     His light and Gallic spirits underwent a sudden, miraculous change. He hummed a blithe San Salvador Opera Company tune; he grinned, smirked, bowed, pirouetted, twiddled, twaddled, twisted, and tooralooed. Gayly, the notorious troubadour, could not have equalled Étienne.

   • 1955, Walter de la Mare, A Beginning and Other Stories, Faber & Faber, page 97:

     George was sitting in his shirt-sleeves among his pigeons; snow-white creatures that tooralooed and paced and ducketed on the gravel about his feet, while two of their fellows cooed love secrets into his ear.

   • 2006, Robin Lee Smith, The Care and Feeding of Griffins:

     The little meat that survived this amateur undertaking went to Aisling, who was so happy, he serenaded her for the rest of the day with too-ra-loos. […] Her slingshot and some rocks went into her pockets, and a good coil of rope went onto her shoulder and then it was out into the plains for Taryn and her too-ra loo-ing little man.

   • 2011, John Callaghan, Black Wind Blows, Lulu.com,, →ISBN, page 300:

     I looked at Donal and he shook his head slowly. “Those cunts’ve changed their route...they must be sending one of the big parades down here and this mob are joining up to them local-like, that’s how come they’re still hangin’ around....shite.”
     “Too-ra-loo, fuck the Pope!
     The old orange flute played the Protestant Boys!”
     The blue band too-ra-looed to the next corner and then too-ra-looed a 180, right back toward us.