humming top
- noun
- /ˈhʌmɪŋ tɑp/
:
trompo zumbador
- The children played with the humming top on the kitchen floor, delighted by its whirring sound.
Examples
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She gave her nephew a brightly painted humming top for his birthday.
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As the humming top spun faster, the soft drone grew louder and more musical.
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The humming top spun quickly on the table.
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She bought a colorful humming top for her son.
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The children played with the humming top on the kitchen floor, delighted by its whirring sound.
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As the humming top spun faster, the soft drone grew louder and more musical.
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She gave her nephew a brightly painted humming top for his birthday.
Synonyms
81
1.8
A small toy that spins on a point
1
1.3
A small toy that turns quickly on a sharp point
A small toy that spins quickly and makes a buzzing sound
A small toy that spins quickly on a point like a top
A wooden toy shaped like a pear with a metal point you spin with a string
A toy that spins when you hit it with a string
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a spinning toy that produces a humming sound' is directly and transparently derived from 'hum' (to emit a steady low sound) + 'top' (a spinning toy); the present-participial modifier 'humming' straightforwardly describes a property of the top. This modifier+noun composition is a regular, cross-linguistically common pattern in English, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The toy humming top is a small spinning top that 'hums' as it turns. Imagine a child pushing a plunger or twisting it so it spins fast and makes a steady 'buzz', so the name links the movement top and the sound humming to describe the toy.