What's the difference between hum and hummer?

Hum


Definition:

  • (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.

Hummer


Definition:

  • (n.) One who, or that which, hums; one who applauds by humming.
  • (n.) A humming bird.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There are no yellow Lamborghinis or Hummers blasting music.
  • (2) During a conference in 2008, she distributed a fleet of hummers to regional bosses.
  • (3) The latest incarnation of the Batmobile - usually a sleek sportscar - looks like someone crossed a Hummer with a Lamborghini and a stealth bomber, then got a T-Rex to sit on the result.
  • (4) Or if I'm in a more socially conscious form of my default setting, I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic jam being angry and disgusted at all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUVs and Hummers and V12 pickup trucks burning their wasteful, selfish, 40-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers, who are usually talking on cell phones as they cut people off in order to get just 20 stupid feet ahead in a traffic jam, and I can think about how our children's children will despise us for wasting all the future's fuel and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and disgusting we all are, and how it all just sucks ...
  • (5) Outside Gucci, a driver kipped yesterday in a black seven-series Mercedes; nearby someone had parked their giant Hummer jeep on the pavement.
  • (6) In this traffic, all these vehicles stuck and idling in my way: it's not impossible that some of these people in SUVs have been in horrible car accidents in the past and now find driving so traumatic that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive; or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he's trying to rush to the hospital, and he's in a much bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am - it is actually I who am in his way.
  • (7) GM, which is 60% owned by the US treasury, has cut its workforce from 318,000 three years ago to 209,000 globally and has got rid of brands such as Hummer, Saab, Pontiac and Saturn.
  • (8) I’m not going to sit back and buy a Hummer and just let it all slide.
  • (9) The organization will begin to disintegrate into several smaller, uncoordinated entities – ultimately failing in their objective of creating a strong state.” Manning was posted to Forward Operating Base Hummer outside Baghdad where as an intelligence analyst she had a ring-side seat on the largely Sunni insurgency, poring through classified databases to track the movements and tactics of groups including Isis.
  • (10) 9.01pm: Meanwhile, in other news on the motor industry front - General Motors has just announced that it is shutting down the gas-guzzling Hummer brand after a sale to China's Sichuan Tengzhong.
  • (11) Among registrations of new passenger cars were 850,000 SUVs – a rise of 24% – including 425 Hummers.
  • (12) GM, America's biggest carmaker, is selling brands such as Hummer and Saturn as it scrambles to slim down its operations.
  • (13) If the world was going to end next week I'd have commemorative ARMAGEDDON RIGHT ON IT 2K12 T-shirts made for me and 35 close mates, hire a white stretch Hummer to take us to Nando's in Brent Cross, and ride it all out over a family platter or 10 and a bucket of cheeky Vimtos.
  • (14) Yet if Punta is testament to the utter incongruence of money and taste, José Ignacio, occupying a thin peninsula in the middle of two wide coves, is a restrained, elegant demonstration of how high-end development can be done well - the Jaguar to Punta del Este's luminous yellow, souped-up Hummer.
  • (15) In fact, the biggest problem for Qahtani was her husband sitting next to her in the family Hummer.
  • (16) Hummer limousines (£400 an hour), fire engines and party buses (from £350 an hour), rickshaws and helicopters (and even tractors in rural locations) are also becoming more popular choices, Brookman says.
  • (17) This difference has been attributed [Hummer & Millán (1991) Biochem.
  • (18) When the couple eventually move here, I trust they will get their Hummer serviced at Kwik Fit, sport K-Swiss trainers on their feet and eat only Special K for breakfast, followed by KFC for lunch with a Kit Kat for pudding.
  • (19) One of the earliest personal computers, the Apple-1, will also go under the hummer alongside Turing's work.
  • (20) The prisoner was seen to be gasping for air for up to 14 minutes in a procedure that one observer, Lawrence Hummer, described in the Guardian as horrendous and inhumane.

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