(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.
Whirr
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) The machinery - the spinning gazebo, the train, the paddle-powered airship - whirrs along at the delicate yet exhilarating pace of clockwork.
(2) The mind whirrs away, and soon enough the demystification begins.
(3) The peculiar percussion in the song's middle-eight – helicopter blade whirrs, and a distant shouting army – sound especially fierce against Michael Stipe's distant, spoken-word testimony.
(4) A policewoman hops to the side, to avoid blocking our shot, and there's a chorus of clicks, whirrs and focus beeps.
(5) Then West Ham took over, their running, passing and imagination making the visitors look like mere bouncers amid a whirr of party people.
(6) Once the wheels began to whirr on Manchester United’s move for Radamel Falcao, with Welbeck told he could leave Old Trafford, the route south became a serious option.
(7) With that news still forthcoming, the rumour mill continues to whirr, particularly after Abrams confirmed that he'd had meetings with Jesse Plemons, the American actor known for roles in TV dramas Breaking Bad and Friday Night Lights.
(8) Part of the problem, I suspect, is that few of us doubt the behavioural or environmental threats of technology; our endless distractibility, the constant beeps and whirrs and notifications of modern life.
(9) Wembley itself was ringed with extra security for the occasion from the whirr of the helicopters parked against the clouds hours before kick-off, to the presence on the usually carefree Wembley Way of knots of armed policemen in bulky protective vests, automatic weapons strapped to their chests.
(10) "The population of Mogadishu is regaining confidence," he says as the air conditioner whirrs, dripping water on to sandbags outside his prefab office.
(11) But then, with a spiral, pulsing flutter, it grew to a hissing whirr, landing with ferocious blasts, with tremendous thumps and then their echoes, followed by the whine of fragments which cut into the trees, driving white scars in their trunks and filling the air with torn shreds of foliage.
(12) In a small-space game the Welshman was a whirr of pace and dribbling as the ball stuck to that famous left boot before up went his arms in mock-jubilation to tease the team-mates who could not dispossess him.
(13) Koeman was irritable about that; the time-wasting, which he felt the officials could have done more to stamp out; the disallowed goal; the result and the whirr of transfer speculation which tracked both Mané and Victor Wanyama into the game.