(v. i.) To make a low, prolonged sound, like that of a bee in flight; to drone; to murmur; to buzz; as, a top hums.
(v. i.) To make a nasal sound, like that of the letter m prolonged, without opening the mouth, or articulating; to mumble in monotonous undertone; to drone.
(v. i.) To make an inarticulate sound, like h'm, through the nose in the process of speaking, from embarrassment or a affectation; to hem.
(v. i.) To express satisfaction by a humming noise.
(v. i.) To have the sensation of a humming noise; as, my head hums, -- a pathological condition.
(v. t.) To sing with shut mouth; to murmur without articulation; to mumble; as, to hum a tune.
(v. t.) To express satisfaction with by humming.
(v. t.) To flatter by approving; to cajole; to impose on; to humbug.
(n.) A low monotonous noise, as of bees in flight, of a swiftly revolving top, of a wheel, or the like; a drone; a buzz.
(n.) Any inarticulate and buzzing sound
(n.) The confused noise of a crowd or of machinery, etc., heard at a distance; as, the hum of industry.
(n.) A buzz or murmur, as of approbation.
(n.) An imposition or hoax.
(interj.) An inarticulate nasal sound or murmur, like h'm, uttered by a speaker in pause from embarrassment, affectation, etc.
(interj.) A kind of strong drink formerly used.
(interj.) Ahem; hem; an inarticulate sound uttered in a pause of speech implying doubt and deliberation.
Example Sentences:
(1) As he sits in Athens wondering when the International Monetary Fund is going to deliver another bailout, George Papandreou might be tempted to hum a few lines of Tired of Waiting for You.
(2) Although the cranes swing, much of the new living zones now being created range from the ho-hum to the outright catastrophic.
(3) Mononuclear cells were fractionated from human cord blood by affinity chromatography on immobilized peanut agglutinin, as previously described (Rosenberg et al., Hum Immunol 7:67, 1983).
(4) Managers scurry back and forth across the Atlantic with advance copies handcuffed to their wrists, critics are required to sign contracts promising that they will not so much as hum the contents to their nearest and dearest, and the music press acts as if the world is about to witness the most significant release since Nelson Mandela's.
(5) He shook his head from side to side, whispering or humming the same three-note tune.
(6) The apolipoprotein E3-Leiden variant has been shown to be associated with familial dysbetalipoproteinemia (FD) in a dominant manner (Havekes et al., Hum Genet 1986;73:157-163).
(7) The politics of football have long been accompanied by a background hum of corruption claims, but in recent times it has become a cacophony.
(8) Selling its own phone would mean it could make itself the background hum of many peoples' lives everywhere – and show adverts and collect data on its own terms.
(9) His father, who was fond of humming the popular ballad Keep Right on to the End of the Road, lost his job in the great depression of the early 1930s.
(10) Hollow-eyed children beg outside restaurants and cafes that hum with the chatter of shisha-smoking customers.
(11) Her hums on early awards buzz Speaking of Oscar contenders, it will be fascinating to see how Spike Jonze's latest movie pans out.
(12) That robs astronomy of one of its key recruiting tools: the chance to plant young scientists under the dish and let its hum capture their imagination.
(13) Four hours from the Zurich madhouse, Uefa’s base on the shores of Lake Geneva in Nyon hums with calm purpose.
(14) He made politics great again in the sense of getting people to care instead of allowing it to hum softly in the background.
(15) I am not sure that a lucrative career in rape gags is more helpful than a failed one, but the rape hum seems eternal.
(16) "I wouldn't say this agreement was entirely ho-hum but it does not address the big ticket issues.
(17) And I think Stephen hummed and hah-ed in an embarrassed fashion.
(18) humming, whistling) for atonal melody, but that non-musicians could not use any effective strategies for melody coding.
(19) At the moment the noise is like a city humming away.
(20) Without the faintest idea what I was humming along to, my mother left me to my obsession with nothing more than a shrug.
Humbug
Definition:
(v. t.) To deceive; to impose; to cajole; to hoax.
(n.) An imposition under fair pretenses; something contrived in order to deceive and mislead; a trick by cajolery; a hoax.
(n.) A spirit of deception; cajolery; trickishness.
(n.) One who deceives or misleads; a deceitful or trickish fellow; an impostor.
Example Sentences:
(1) Vice, folly and humbug – it is the point of satire really.
(2) What more timely image could there be for his departure than a Christmas costume and a prescience for all the humbug that will inevitably attend his death.
(3) Shortly after, they began to produce confectioneries such as chocolate limes, humbugs and caramels.
(4) Gary McNair: War on Christmas Anyone who has ever felt like saying “Bah, humbug!” to the John Lewis ad will find a kindred spirit in Gary McNair, playing a Santa working in a down-at-heel Christmas grotto who decides to investigate what Christmas means if you are poor.
(5) But, you may exclaim, what humbug for countries that invaded Iraq to excoriate others for violating sovereignty.
(6) Counties lose their names, trains lose their livery, ginger snaps lose their flavour and mint humbugs their sharp corners ... under my derationalisation programme, Yorkshire would get back its Ridings, the red telephone box would be a preserved species, there would be Pullman cars called Edna, a teashop in every high street and a proper card index in the public library."
(7) Accusing his opponents of "the most blatant hypocrisy in pretending they have changed to a modern, enlightened party", Lord Lester said: "What they have done is seek to destroy the central purpose of the bill under the guise of giving rights to others and it's complete humbug done for electoral purposes."
(8) It has not reached the pitch of disintegration at which humbug can be dropped."
(9) Lymphocystis disease is reported for the first time from the white-tailed damselfish, Dascyllus aruanus, and the black-tailed humbug, Dascyllus melanurus.
(10) I thought of the tourist scrums pushing each other off the pavements, jostling for souvenir humbugs and wind-up Beefeaters.
(11) Typical young man's title, you see, typical piece of that sort of humbugging, canting rhetoric, which young men - bless their hearts - specialise in.
(12) We probably all know a few pre-Games humbug-criers – shouting themselves hoarse in stadiums or rapt and sometimes in tears in front of the TV – who have looked like Scrooge on Christmas morning in the last few weeks.
(13) So the return of WTPS may serve to revive the genre, the old ghost donning its armour to do battle once more with humbug and pomposity.
(14) It was a strange experience to hear this paragon of logic, sceptical of all humbug trotting out stories that normally he would have scoffed at.
(15) It's enough to put you off shopping altogether, and has done for Nicole Slavin who is "bah humbug about Christmas , partly because of the commercialisation and the sheer social pressure to buy people things".
(16) For Labour, with the taste of Suez still in their mouths, Hugh Gaitskell described this as "the worst humbug and hypocrisy."
(17) Their latest, Humbug , recorded in the Californian desert with Josh Homme, reveals a more mature, assured band.