Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that hums.
  • noun Informal A hummingbird.
  • noun Baseball A fastball.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A calling device employed in telephony in place of the magnetic call-bell; a buzzer.
  • noun One who or that which hums.
  • noun One who or that which excels in any quality, especially in general energy or speed.
  • noun In ornithology, a humming-bird.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang fellatio in which the person performing the act vibrates their mouth by humming.
  • noun slang humvee
  • noun slang hummingbird
  • noun slang humdinger
  • noun baseball A fastball.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (baseball) a pitch thrown with maximum velocity
  • noun a singer who produces a tune without opening the lips or forming words

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • I didn't realize that Hummers were now sufficiently advanced to be able to fly as well. I shall dash right out and buy one. And I shall call it Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. It will be my fine four-fendered friend. And I will stock it with toot sweets.

    January 1, 2008

  • Also, a hickey.

    January 1, 2008

  • Also, ..., well, never mind.

    January 2, 2008

  • "His rock origins and lack of classical training raised doubts at the start; some established composers considered him a 'hummer'—Hollywood slang for a would-be composer who can’t read music and relies on ghostwriters. (Charlie Chaplin was a hummer.)"

    The New Yorker, Oscar Scores, by Alex Ross, March 9, 1998

    April 28, 2008

  • She could borrow, perhaps, his old sedan though he might not like the notion (pointing to a nondescript youth who was waiting for her on the sidewalk). He had just bought a heavenly Hummer to go places with her.

    --Vladimir Nabokov, 1974, Look at the Harlequins!‎ p. 138

    June 13, 2009

  • To begin to neigh. - an old provincial term from the south of England.

    May 2, 2011

  • Oh, you see that's just plain silly. It's quite sufficient to have the verb "to neigh"; there's no conceivable reason to have a special verb for starting the process. One can just say "Gluebones cleared his horsey throat, because he was feeling a bit catarrhy ...."

    May 2, 2011

  • Neigh.

    May 2, 2011

  • I would like a verb for "to begin to speak."

    May 2, 2011