Definition of 'hush'
Word forms: 3rd person singular present tense hushes, present participle hushing, past tense, past participle hushed
1. convention
2. transitive verb/intransitive verb
If you hush someone or if they hush, they stop speaking or making a noise.
3. singular noun [also no det]
You say there is a hush in a place when everything is quiet and peaceful, or suddenly becomes quiet.
Phrasal verbs:
See hush up
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
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Word Frequency
hush in American English
verb intransitive
3.
to stop making noise; be or become quiet or silent
adjective
4. Archaic
silent; hushed
noun
5.
absence of noise; quiet; silence
interjection
6.
be silent
Idioms:
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Word origin
ME huschen < huscht, quiet (mistaken as pp.): of echoic orig.
Word Frequency
hush in American English
(hʌʃ)
interjection
1.
(used as a command to be silent or quiet)
intransitive verb
2.
to become or be silent or quiet
They hushed as the judge walked in
transitive verb
3.
to make silent; silence
adjective
SYNONYMS 6. peace, stillness, tranquillity.8. archaic
silent; quiet
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019
by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Derived forms
hushedly (ˈhʌʃɪdli, ˈhʌʃtli) adverb
hushful
adjective
hushfully
adverb
Word origin
[1350–1400; appar. back formation from husht whist2 (ME huissht), the -t being taken for ptp. suffix]Word Frequency
hush in British English 1
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Derived forms
hushed adjective
Word origin
C16: probably from earlier husht quiet!, the -t being thought to indicate a past participle
Word Frequency
hush in British English 2
verb (transitive)
noun
3.
a gush of water, esp when artificially produced
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin
C18: of imitative origin
Examples of 'hush' in a sentence
hush
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hush
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In other languages
hush
British English: hush
NOUN /hʌʃ/
You say there is a hush in a place when everything is quiet and peaceful, or suddenly becomes quiet.
A hush fell over the crowd and I knew something terrible had happened.
British English: hush
VERB /hʌʃ/
If you hush someone or if they hush, they stop speaking or making a noise.
She tried to hush her noisy father.
British English: hush!
INTERJECTION /hʌʃ/
You say 'Hush!' to someone when you are asking or telling them to be quiet.
Hush, my love, it's all right.
Browse alphabetically
hush
Related terms of
hush
Source
Definition of hush from the Collins English Dictionary
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