Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To utter a series of chirps.
- intransitive verb To make clucking or clicking sounds with the lips, as in urging on a horse.
- intransitive verb To sound with chirps.
- intransitive verb To make clucking sounds to.
- noun A series of chirps.
- noun A series of clucks or clicking sounds, such as those made to urge on a horse.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To chirp.
- To quicken, enliven, or animate, as by making a chirping sound; cherup: as, to
chirrup one's horses. - noun A chirp.
- To cheer or applaud (a public singer or the like, and for pay).
- To produce or utter chirpingly.
- To produce with compressed lips and suction a sharp explosive chirping sound by way of greeting or pleasing an infant or a cage-bird, or of coaxing and encouraging a dog or a horse, etc.
- To converse or sing in a lively manner or in sprightly tones.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To quicken or animate by chirping; to cherup.
- intransitive verb To chirp.
- noun The act of chirping; a chirp.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To make a series of
chirps ,clicks orclucks - noun A series of chirps, clicks or clucks
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make high-pitched sounds
- noun a series of chirps
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Esther works on maintaining her attention only in the present; there is always the now—an endlessly adjusting smell of the wind, the shining of the stars, the deep five-call chirrup chirrup of the cicadas in the park.
Memory Wall Anthony Doerr 2010
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Esther works on maintaining her attention only in the present; there is always the now—an endlessly adjusting smell of the wind, the shining of the stars, the deep five-call chirrup chirrup of the cicadas in the park.
Memory Wall Anthony Doerr 2010
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Again, it should be known that the conventional "chirrup" (7) to quiet and "cluck" to rouse a horse are a sort of precept of the training school; and supposing any one from the beginning chose to associate soft soothing actions with the "cluck" sound, and harsh rousing actions with the "chirrup," the horse could be taught to rouse himself at the
On Horsemanship 431 BC-350? BC Xenophon 1874
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At night other sounds are heard, less agreeable to the ear: the shrill "chirrup" of cicadas and tree-toads ringing so incessantly, that only when they cease do you become conscious of their existence; the dull "gluck-gluck" of the great bullfrog; the sharp cries of the heron and _qua-bird_; and the sepulchral screech of the great horned owl.
The Wild Huntress Love in the Wilderness Mayne Reid 1850
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A "chirrup" can be sounded if pedestrians or cyclists seem unaware of its presence.
BC Bloggers Stephen Rees blog 2010
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For an hour, our group wandered round Pripyat, stepping over broken glass and lumps of wood and stone, with the constant chirrup of our radiation counters providing warnings if we strayed too far.
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He slightly slacked the reins on the restless, head-tossing animals, and without need of chirrup they took the weight of the light vehicle and passed up the hill and apprehensively on the inside of the purring machine.
CHAPTER X 2010
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They chitter, chatter and chirrup, twitching their tails as if they were furry lariats.
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Between each chirrup in a chorus of spring peepers, tiny pauses.
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It is at this stage that Zombie Isner starts to look like Zombie Mahut and the Zombie Umpire stops croaking and starts to chirrup like a grasshopper.
Wimbledon 2010 live blog: 23 June Xan Brooks at Wimbledon 2010
brtom commented on the word chirrup
A duodene of birdnotes chirruped bright treble answer under sensitive hands.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007