Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive & transitive verb To utter or pronounce with a hissing sound.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To pronounce with a hissing sound, like that of the letters s or z; also, to mark with a character indicating such a pronunciation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- verb To pronounce with a hissing sound, like that of the letter s; to mark with a character indicating such pronunciation.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
hiss - verb To
speak with a hissing sound
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make a sharp hissing sound, as if to show disapproval
- verb pronounce with an initial sibilant
- verb express or utter with a hiss
- verb utter a sibilant
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Nor yet the Austrian cross-breeds who are to be beheld behind the _gulasch_ in the Rue d'Hauteville, nor the semi-Milanese who sibilate the _minestrone_ at Aldegani's in the Passage des Panoramas, nor the Frenchified Spaniards and Portuguese who gobble the _guisillo madrileño_ at Don José's in the Rue Helder, nor the half-French Cossacks amid the _potrokha_ in the Restaurant Cubat, nor the Orientals with the waxed moustachios and girlish waists who may be observed at moontide dawdling over their _café à la Turque_ at Madame
Europe After 8:15 George Jean Nathan 1920
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Umbrellas may be 'hedged about' by cobweb statutes; I will not swear it is not so; there may exist laws that make such things property; but sure I am that the hissing contempt, the loud-mouthed indignation of all civilised society, 'would sibilate and roar at the bloodless poltroon who should engage law on his side to obtain for him the restitution of a-- lent Umbrella! "
Umbrellas and Their History William Sangster 1848
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