| / English Dictionary |
WHISTLING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of whistling a tune
Example:
his cheerful whistling indicated that he enjoyed his work
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("whistling" is a kind of...):
music (musical activity (singing or whistling etc.))
Derivation:
whistle (utter or express by whistling)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The act of signalling (e.g., summoning) by whistling or blowing a whistle
Example:
the whistle signalled the end of the game
Synonyms:
whistle; whistling
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("whistling" is a kind of...):
sign; signal; signaling (any nonverbal action or gesture that encodes a message)
Derivation:
whistle (give a signal by whistling)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The sound made by something moving rapidly or by steam coming out of a small aperture
Synonyms:
whistle; whistling
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("whistling" is a kind of...):
sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)
Derivation:
whistle (make a whining, ringing, or whistling sound)
whistle (make whistling sounds)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb whistle
Context examples:
He seemed to find an immense fund of reflection in this circumstance, and sat pondering and inwardly whistling for some time.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
“And now they’re payin’ their respects to each other and tryin’ to get clear,” the red-faced man went on, as the hurried whistling ceased.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
And so, having turned the laugh in his favour by his merry way of taking it, he cracked his whip, and away they flew to make London under the five hours; while Jack Harrison, with his half-fullered shoe in his hand, went whistling back to the forge.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Difference in opinions has cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire; what is the best colour for a coat, whether black, white, red, or gray; and whether it should be long or short, narrow or wide, dirty or clean; with many more.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
A change had taken place in the weather the preceding evening, and a keen north-east wind, whistling through the crevices of our bedroom windows all night long, had made us shiver in our beds, and turned the contents of the ewers to ice.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Intriguingly, people in other parts of Africa use very different sounds for the same purpose – for example, our colleague Brian Wood’s work has shown that Hadza honey-hunters in Tanzania make a melodious whistling sound to recruit honeyguides.
(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
With a few hurried words as to our plans for the morrow he rose and came out with me into the garden, clambering over the wall which leads into Mortimer Street, and immediately whistling for a hansom, in which I heard him drive away.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was whistling “Come, Lasses and Lads.”
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
A line was measured down the valley, and Johnston, drawing an arrow to the very head, sent it whistling over the row of wands.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Instantly she was whirling through the air, so swiftly that all she could see or feel was the wind whistling past her ears.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
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