Other forms: shouting, shouted, shouts
To shout is to say something at full volume. Shouting an order across a noisy pub, shouting for a taxi in the rain, a teacher shouting at a class that will not settle.
Shout at somebody and you are angry with them; shout to somebody and you are only trying to be heard over the traffic, which is a difference worth getting right. The noun is a shout — there was a shout from upstairs and then footsteps. British English does two friendly things with it: give me a shout means let me know, and it is my shout means I am buying the next round. A shout-out is a public mention of somebody's name. Among the loud words, shout is the plain one, yell is rougher and crosser, and scream is high and frightened.
1verbshoutTo say something very loudly.
“He had to shout to be heard over the drill.”
2verbspeakTo speak loudly and angrily at somebody.
“Please do not shout at the children.”
3nounloudA loud call.
“A shout went up when the goal went in.”
4nounturnA turn to buy a round of drinks (informal, British).
“Sit down, it is my shout.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
shout is a way of speaking.
Also accepted in games: yell, scream
Where shout came from is anybody's guess. Middle English had shouten and nobody has traced it back with any confidence. The two candidates both make good pictures: Middle English shooten, to shoot out, as though the voice were fired out of you, or Old Norse skuta, to chide and scold, and skuta again, a taunt.
Old Norse
skúta — to chide, scold
Middle English
shouten
English, today
shout
Built from
From Middle English shouten. Further origin unknown. Possibly related to Middle English shooten (“to shoot (out)”) or from or akin to Old Norse skúta (“to chide, scold”), Old Norse skúti, skúta (“a taunt”). See also the second, rare sense of the verb scout (“to reject with contempt”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA