loo
Pluralloos
Pluralloos
- 1A toilet: the room, or the fixture in it, that people use for urinating and defecating.
Excuse me, could you tell me where the loo is?
The pub's loos are down the stairs at the back, past the kitchen.
UsageCommon phrases include go to the loo and Where's the loo?
Similartoilet, lavatory, bathroom, restroom, WC
Note
It is everyday speech in Britain, Ireland and much of the Commonwealth, where an American would ask for the bathroom or restroom, and the idiom is go to the loo, as in Nancy Mitford's Pigeon Pie (1940).
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Nancy Mitford wrote Pigeon Pie, first published in 1940. nancymitford.com
- The expression go to the loo occurs in Pigeon Pie. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A hot, dust-laden wind that blows across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab.
By noon the loo was blowing across the plains, and shopkeepers pulled down their shutters until evening.
Doctors warned farmers to cover their heads against the loo during the harvest.
UsageOften used with the: the loo was blowing.
Note
The word is Hindi lū, from Sanskrit ulkā, "flame", a fit ancestor for a wind that feels like the breath of a fire. In Indian English it takes the, like the monsoon, and Kipling uses it that way in The Man Who Would Be King (1888): "the loo, the red-hot wind from the westward".
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The wind name comes from Hindi lū, ultimately from Sanskrit ulkā, meaning flame. en.wiktionary.org
- Rudyard Kipling wrote The Man Who Would Be King, first published in 1888. en.wikipedia.org
- The quoted wording occurs exactly in the story, with the definite article, in the unnamed narrator's narration. gutenberg.org
- 3Alternative form of lanterloo: an old trick-taking card game in which a player who takes no trick pays into a pool.
After supper the guests sat down to loo, and the stakes climbed with every hand.
Each player at loo is dealt three cards, and anyone who takes no trick pays into the pool.
UsageNo article, like other game names: play loo, sat down to loo.
Note
Loo is lanterloo cut short, and earlier writers spelled it lu or lue, as in Pope's The Rape of the Lock, where mighty Pam "mow'd down Armies in the Fights of Lu". Like other names of games it takes no article and no plural: a drawing room in Pride and Prejudice (1813) holds "the whole party at loo".
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- The card-game name loo is a shortening of lanterloo. en.wiktionary.org
- Lu and lue are historical spellings of the card-game name. en.wiktionary.org
- Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock contains the quoted description of mighty Pam. gutenberg.org
- Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. gutenberg.org
- The narration of Pride and Prejudice places the whole party at loo in a drawing room. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 4A half-mask, especially the velvet kind fashionable in the 17th century, which women wore to protect their complexions from the sun.
Loo Mask. An half Mask.
a. 1685, Mary Evelyn, “The Fop-dictionary”Note
The name is French loup, "wolf", which also meant a mask, so the word shares its ancestry with English wolf itself, and with lupus and lobo. It is now met only in old texts and histories of dress; Mary Evelyn's Fop-dictionary in Mundus Muliebris glosses it with a terse "Loo Mask. An half Mask."
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The mask name loo comes from French loup, meaning both wolf and mask. en.wiktionary.org
- Loo shares its ancestry with wolf, lupus and lobo. en.wiktionary.org
- Mary Evelyn is credited with Mundus Muliebris, which includes the Fop-dictionary. en.wikipedia.org
- The Fop-dictionary glosses Loo Mask with the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
- 5An officer holding the rank of lieutenant.
- 6Used as a shout to urge hunting dogs on.
- 7In the card game lanterloo, the penalty a player pays into the pool for breaking certain rules or failing to take a trick, or an act that incurs it.
- 8In lanterloo, to pay a penalty into the pool for breaking certain rules or failing to take a trick.
- 9In lanterloo, to beat another player so that they must pay into the pool, usually by leaving them without a trick.
He was seldom indeed without two good trumps, and therefore almost invariably loo'd those who stood.
1847, Henry Cockton, The Love Match - 10To urge on with cries of loo, or figuratively with other shouting or outcry, usually followed by at, upon or an infinitive.
- 11To pay a penalty of any kind to a community.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
No one knows for sure. The usual view ties it somehow to Waterloo, where Wellington defeated Napoleon in 1815, probably through a pun on water closet. Other proposals include garbled forms of French l'eau ("water"), lieu ("place"), bordalou ("a small chamber pot") and gardez l'eau ("mind the water"), the last by way of Scots gardyloo, which people in Edinburgh shouted when tipping chamber pots out of windows. Some point instead to "Room 100", supposedly the lavatory in Continental hotels, or to lew, a regional form of lee ("downwind"). Another story makes it a clipping of the name of a Lady Louisa, whose bedroom name-card was said to have been put on a lavatory door as a prank in 1867.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 8 facts
- The origin is uncertain; the usual explanation connects Waterloo with a pun on water closet. en.wiktionary.org
- Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. nam.ac.uk
- The listed French expressions and meanings are documented proposed sources of loo. en.wiktionary.org
- One proposal connects loo with Scots gardyloo, a warning shouted in Edinburgh before emptying chamber pots through windows. en.wiktionary.org
- The supposed European toilet designation Room 100 is a documented proposed origin. stason.org
- Lew, a regional form associated with lee, is another proposed source. en.wiktionary.org
- The regional word lew corresponds to lee and refers to shelter from the wind. en.wiktionary.org
- A documented story dates the Lady Louisa name-card prank to 1867 and derives loo from her name. woodhouseparishcouncil.gov.uk
A clipped form of lanterloo.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Loo, the card-game name, is a clipped form of lanterloo. en.wiktionary.org
English took it from French loup, which means "wolf" and also "mask, eyemask". Lobo, lupus and wolf share its origin, so they are doublets.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- English loo, meaning a half-mask, was borrowed from French loup. en.wiktionary.org
- French loup means both wolf and mask or eyemask. en.wiktionary.org
- Loo, lobo, lupus and wolf share an etymological origin and are doublets. en.wiktionary.org
From Hindi lū, ultimately from Sanskrit ulkā (“flame”).
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Loo derives from Hindi lū. en.wiktionary.org
- Hindi lū ultimately derives from Sanskrit ulkā, meaning “flame”. en.wiktionary.org