Meaning

(obsolete) A chorus of sorrow or distress.

Definitions by Sense

1. (obsolete) A chorus of sorrow or distress
2. (obsolete) A cry of sorrow or distress

Example Sentences

So you may fancy the pillaloo that went up when the Overseers posted their new assessment on the church door and ‘twas found they’d ruled out no less than sixty voters known, or suspected to be, in Dr. Macann’s interest.

“Pitch a lady’s luggage into the road, would you?” struck in Jim the Guard, making himself heard above the pillaloo.

However in the same breath he talks of writing a poem on the herons at Algeciras “in a few years time”... What a pillaloo!

Oh, pillaloo! why should ye go, my boy, and lave all the good atin and drinkin?

1857 Henry Murray, Lands of the Slave and the Free The dialogue was brought to a sudden stop by the frantic yell of the juvenile pledge of their affections, whose years had not yet reached two figures; a compact little iron-bound box had fallen on his toe, and the poor little urchin’s pilliloo, pilliloo, was pitiful.

An’ the wust was, that what wi’ the rumpus an’ her singin’ out “Pillaloo!” an’ how the devil was amongst mun, havin’ great wrath, the Lawyer’s sarmon about a “wecked an’ ’dulterous generation seekin’ arter a sign” was clean sp’iled.

“Och, but its kilt and smashed intirely they are,” returned Larry, as he stumbled over the shattered remains of a corpse; “och hone – och hone – pillaloo, pillaloo!”

Related Words

When Should You Use Pillaloo?

Use pillaloo when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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