What's the difference between hiss and hush?

Hiss


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To make with the mouth a prolonged sound like that of the letter s, by driving the breath between the tongue and the teeth; to make with the mouth a sound like that made by a goose or a snake when angered; esp., to make such a sound as an expression of hatred, passion, or disapproval.
  • (v. i.) To make a similar noise by any means; to pass with a sibilant sound; as, the arrow hissed as it flew.
  • (v. t.) To condemn or express contempt for by hissing.
  • (v. t.) To utter with a hissing sound.
  • (n.) A prolonged sound like that letter s, made by forcing out the breath between the tongue and teeth, esp. as a token of disapprobation or contempt.
  • (n.) Any sound resembling that above described
  • (n.) The noise made by a serpent.
  • (n.) The note of a goose when irritated.
  • (n.) The noise made by steam escaping through a narrow orifice, or by water falling on a hot stove.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There is the sound of engines hissing and crackling, which have been mixed to seem as near to the ear as the camera was to the cars; there is a mostly unnoticeable rustle of leaves in the trees; periodically, so faintly that almost no one would register it consciously, there is the sound of a car rolling through an intersection a block or two over, off camera; a dog barks somewhere far away.
  • (2) When Trump described her father as a “tremendous champion of supporting families”, there were boos and hisses.
  • (3) Even if we have to wait in line for a hissing coffee machine.
  • (4) Feline affective defense behavior, characterized mainly by autonomic arousal, ear retraction, growling, hissing and paw striking, was elicited by electrical stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH).
  • (5) Ragged-red fibers with abnormal mitochondria, cerebral spongiosis mostly involving white matter, perimacular pigmentary retinopathy and scattered myocardial fibrosis interrupting the Hiss'bundle were found.
  • (6) Mutants that require histidine due to an altered structural gene for the histidyl-transfer ribonucleic acid synthetase (hisS) have been isolated by a general selection for histidine-requiring strains in which the mutation producing histidine auxotrophy is unlinked to the histidine operon.
  • (7) If that happens, Osborne will get the blame as the hissing becomes deafening.
  • (8) Other factors hiss their message more perniciously.
  • (9) Sure, the season’s story, which focuses on Vanessa Ives’s struggle to decode the “memoirs of the devil” and fight a hissing viper pit of Lucifer’s witches, may be pure pulp burlesque, but that’s just the first layer of Penny Dreadful’s charm.
  • (10) Supporters of the Tunisian national football team whistle and hiss at the French national anthem before the match.
  • (11) Hissing and directed attack were selected for threshold determination.
  • (12) The earphones were with Eva, 11, who was listening to the soundtrack of Glee at a loud enough level to produce that particularly annoying mixture of hiss and thud.
  • (13) For the 30 years I have followed Spurs to away games – in pubs, around tube stations, on the streets around the ground and within Stamford Bridge itself, the venom, ignorance and breathtaking casualness of Chelsea fans’ references to Jews, Auschwitz, the Holocaust and foreskins, often accompanied by a hissing simulation of gas chambers, is simply shocking – not least because it goes unchallenged by police, stewards or the club itself, bar a token reference furtively hidden away in the match-day programme.
  • (14) Most tourists satisfy themselves with a quick drive around the crater rim, stopping for photos at the viewing points, but if you really want to smell the sulphur, feel the heat of the lava and hear the hissing of the steam vents, a bike tour is perfect.
  • (15) Arthur had a hapless sidekick, Chester Drawers, who he’d humiliate roundly in front of an audience, then come off stage and double down on by hissing something like: “I’ve seen a monkey take a pie better than that!” Will May’s government soon be forced to undergo an emergency Borisectomy?
  • (16) The injection of the D1-selective antagonist SCH 23390 (0.3 nmol), however, did not inhibit apomorphine-induced facilitation of hissing.
  • (17) The somatic and autonomic displays which accompanied defensive behavior were similar between stimuli, consisting of mydriasis, piloerection, growling, hissing and paw strikes.
  • (18) (“He took the cork out and spilled a little on the wooden plank of the pier; it hissed like steam.”) Only later in the last century did the crime begin to be associated with the developing rather than the developed rather than the developed world, as a function of male oppression and feudalism, rather than the green-eyed cruelty of richer societies.
  • (19) That said, as we make our way up the stairs he lets out a hiss of air.
  • (20) Air hissed out, leading to normalisation of arterial and venous pressures.

Hush


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To still; to silence; to calm; to make quiet; to repress the noise or clamor of.
  • (v. t.) To appease; to allay; to calm; to soothe.
  • (v. i.) To become or to keep still or quiet; to become silent; -- esp. used in the imperative, as an exclamation; be still; be silent or quiet; make no noise.
  • (n.) Stillness; silence; quiet.
  • (a.) Silent; quiet.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The exam hall crackles with a hushed excitement as the papers for our last ever exam are taken in.
  • (2) Those whose ears catch the idle chatter from the more indiscreet members of Ed’s office have let drop that the leader was reportedly “furious” with Andy for raising not-so-oblique criticisms of the ‘hush now’ approach to party policy, and he could face the chop.
  • (3) But Britain’s hushed response in a string of cases showed that despite the lip service to human rights they were “not one of our top priorities … the prosperity agenda is further up the list”, as a top official conceded of foreign policy in general.
  • (4) It’s kind of kept under the radar, hushed, so it needs to be talked about.” People needed to know, she added, that abortion restrictions had real victims.
  • (5) I suppose people do need to talk about the Troubles, but they don’t need to do it in such a hushed manner.
  • (6) Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar's name is mentioned in hushed tones among most Yemenis, and he rarely appears in public.
  • (7) It's one thing for critics and curators to single out the next rising star from China, expecting hushed reverence from the general public, but quite another for us to genuinely engage with the art of China past and present.
  • (8) At 11.35am, within a packed and hushed court 1, Redknapp and his fellow defendant, the former Portsmouth football club owner Milan Mandaric, hugged in the glass-walled dock after the female jury foreman responded with quiet answers of "not guilty" to each count.
  • (9) But it is also the incantatory darkness of dreams and visions, death and memory, as an observing consciousness creeps into the "blinded bedrooms" of the town's inhabitants, hushing and inviting us on: "Come now, drift up the dark, come up the drifting sea-dark street now in the dark night seesawing like the sea ... " Blind Captain Cat is dreaming of long-ago sea voyages and long-dead lovers; twice-widowed Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard of her henpecked husbands; Organ Morgan of musical extravaganzas; Polly Garter of babies; Mary Ann Sailors of the Garden of Eden; Dai Bread of "Turkish girls.
  • (10) But he was carried off and a kind of hush descended."
  • (11) Back at the hotel for the photo shoot, a great hush falls over the suite.
  • (12) A hush descends whenever we hear the voice of Lorraine, whose resentment towards her mother remains palpable.
  • (13) In a front-page comment piece, Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief of Haaretz, wrote: "Instead of hushing up the blunder, [gag orders] merely shine a spotlight on it.
  • (14) After a tense first half, the second act, which includes the depiction of Klinghoffer’s murder, was quieter, with a sole exclamation of “this is shit!” by a woman in the stalls, who was hushed by the rest of the audience.
  • (15) The compound that oversaw industry during the boom years now has a fading, almost unreadable sign and a deathly hush.
  • (16) Does a lullaby have to be traditional, or do you find yourself making it up as you go, singing original lyrics to the tune of Hush Little Baby ?
  • (17) With echoes of the Catholic priest scandal, for decades rabbis have hushed up child sex crimes and fomented a culture in which victims are further victimised and abusers protected.
  • (18) Rather than a bribe, Ecclestone's defence team claims the $44m payments were hush money.
  • (19) He is hush-hush about how the portraits will turn out, partly because he hasn’t finished them and partly because he wants to save the big reveal for TV and an accompanying exhibition .
  • (20) From 12.02pm, they hushed for four and a half minutes – one for each hour Brown was left lying uncovered on Canfield Drive in the midday heat after being shot, a situation which enraged his friends and family.