loo

1 of 3

noun (1)

1
: an old card game in which the winner of each trick or a majority of tricks takes a portion of the pool while losing players are obligated to contribute to the next pool
2
: money staked at loo

loo

2 of 3

verb

looed; looing; loos

transitive verb

: to obligate to contribute to a new pool at loo for failing to win a trick

loo

3 of 3

noun (2)

chiefly British

Examples of loo in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The commode erupted, leaving the plaintiff and the loo covered in its contents, the lawsuit stated. Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY, 4 Jan. 2024 Little ones are also prone to flushing their Lego down the toilet; one estimate posits that in Britain alone, 2.5 million Lego pieces have been flushed down the loo by children under 10. Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Mar. 2020 And remember: every flush — not to mention, every poor aimer who uses your loo — sends all manner of germs beyond the boundaries of your toilet, so take care to clean the rest of your bathroom regularly, too. Susannah Herrada, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2022 On one journey, rest stops and a Starbucks' loo were closed. Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY, 10 July 2020 Now, Supervisor Myrna Melgar is determined to get to the bottom of just how the city calculated the $445,000 in architecture and engineering fees for a little loo in the Noe Valley Town Square. Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Nov. 2022 Hitting the loo in microgravity may not be glamorous, but astronauts today have it a lot better than the first humans to venture into the final frontier. Daniel Oberhaus, Wired, 22 June 2020 In January 2013, beneath layers of architectural ruins in Rome’s Palatine Hill, Jansen examined something of a treasure among toilets: a chamber likely to be the loo that slaves in Nero’s palace would have frequented 2,000 years ago. Chelsea Wald, Discover Magazine, 17 June 2014

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'loo.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

short for obsolete English lanterloo, from French lanturelu twaddle

Noun (2)

origin unknown

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1675, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1680, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1940, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of loo was in 1675

Dictionary Entries Near loo

Cite this Entry

“Loo.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loo. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

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