to hum
49
1.0
- verb
- /hʌm/
:
zumbar
- The refrigerator hums softly in the background while I watch television.
- humming sound
- machines hum
- computers hum
A chorus, a power lines, hums A melancholic hymn.
- A chorus, a power lines, hums A melancholic hymn.
- What once glowed and hummed in the night is now charred and silent.
Examples
-
If the engine's humming, it's already started.
-
I looked over the forty machines clacking and humming, a whole new world that I felt I belonged to.
Fiction book (1993) -
So have like a consistent stream of air coming out and then hum and hum in different ways.
-
The factory started to hum again, and the move was postponed.
Fiction book (1994) -
The old meat grinder's humming tonight, eh?
-
The motors are humming sweetly.
-
I hear something humming.
-
Lisbeth held my hand, humming something I didn't recognize, possibly inspired by the moment.
Fiction book (1991) -
In the silently humming, soft evening air, a partridge warns its chicks to take cover.
Fiction book (1993) -
Shorn watched quietly while Circumbright soldered together stock circuits, humming in a continuous tuneless drone.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
84
2.5
To make a low, deep, continuous sound
16
6.7
To make a soft, steady buzzing sound often from things that move fast like fan blades
7
3.7
To make a long low sound like distant thunder
1
5.8
To make a long low steady sound
To make a low, steady humming sound
To make a low buzzing or humming sound
To make a low buzzing sound like bees
Making a low continuous sound like soft voices or gentle waves
To make a short low buzzing sound like a small electronic motor or insect
Antonyms
Compounds
How Loud
Surface Forms
Etymology
Hum comes from an old word that copies a low 'hmm' noise, like a running fridge or a group of bees. That is why we say a machine or appliance 'hums' when it makes a steady, low sound 'a low, continuous sound'.