(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.
Thrum
Definition:
(n.) One of the ends of weaver's threads; hence, any soft, short threads or tufts resembling these.
(n.) Any coarse yarn; an unraveled strand of rope.
(n.) A threadlike part of a flower; a stamen.
(n.) A shove out of place; a small displacement or fault along a seam.
(n.) A mat made of canvas and tufts of yarn.
(v. t.) To furnish with thrums; to insert tufts in; to fringe.
(v. t.) To insert short pieces of rope-yarn or spun yarn in; as, to thrum a piece of canvas, or a mat, thus making a rough or tufted surface.
(v. i.) To play rudely or monotonously on a stringed instrument with the fingers; to strum.
(v. i.) Hence, to make a monotonous drumming noise; as, to thrum on a table.
(v. t.) To play, as a stringed instrument, in a rude or monotonous manner.
(v. t.) Hence, to drum on; to strike in a monotonous manner; to thrum the table.
Example Sentences:
(1) A few hundred feet away, the hospital's medical wards were slowly thrumming to work.
(2) But in 1963, when Gloria Steinem went undercover in the New York club for Show magazine, she described a life of swollen feet, drudgery, "demerits" for laddered tights or scruffy tails, and a constant low-level thrum of sexual harassment.
(3) Her selected stories, The Atmospheric Railway , are now available in paperback (Vintage, £9.99) In JMcorrect Barrie's novel Sentimental Tommy , Tommy Sandys, a young Scottish boy living in a London slum, has been brought up on his exiled Scottish mother's tales of her home town, Thrums.
(4) Despite the chill, the east stand was thrumming with energy thrown off by Tólfan (literally, “12”), the Iceland supporters group, 300 of whom had turned up to watch Strákarnir okkar (“Our Boys”) take on the Netherlands in a Euro 2016 qualifier.
(5) For now the wheels are still turning, the production lines thrumming.
(6) Two years later, Lineker left English football to play briefly in Japan, just as the Premier League thrummed into gear.
(7) After their mother's death, Tommy and his little sister, Elspeth, are sent back to Thrums.
(8) The two capitals – Chisinau in Moldova and Tiraspol in Trans-Dniester – couldn't be more different, the former thrumming with traffic and FM radio debate, the latter redolent of a bygone Soviet vision of monolithic order and stability.
(9) For over 18 years the affairs of Karachi, the country's largest city and thrumming economic hub, have been run from a shabby office block more than 4,000 miles away in a suburb of north London.
(10) The city is a thrumming beehive of middleclass lives, all buzzing with secrets and lies.
(11) From the start Trump’s rallies had the air of the tent revival, that same hot thrum of militant exorcism and ecstasy.
(12) The city transformed into a thrumming sea of people who had journeyed from across the Americas to witness, pray and rejoice here, producing a dramatic coda to a visit which took the pontiff closer to the centres of US power and history than any of his predecessors.
(13) London: the city that ate itself Read more The approach used to be exhilarating and comforting at the same time, the electric thrum of reconnection to the national power source combined with the security of home.
(14) He brags endlessly to his friend Shovel (a tough and brutally misused lad) of the beauties and superiority of Thrums.
(15) "Think of the pilgrims … If you close your eyes you can almost hear the thrumming of their hooves …" That, I guess, is the mysterious magic of Powell and Pressburger.
(16) "The world doesn't understand the crisis in Gaza," adds his brother, Wissam, 35, against the headache-inducing thrum of generators that is part of Gaza's soundtrack.
(17) Suttie thrums the heartstrings like a flamenco guitarist.
(18) Leftwing outlets, in contrast, thrummed with indignation.
(19) Heartbroken, he sobs to Elspeth that he was always boasting to Shovel about Thrums and here he is in Thrums "bouncing" about Shovel.
(20) Keyboards thrum, telephones buzz, everyone is in suits.