over the sound of
1
5.6
- idiom
:
por encima del sonido de
- She waved her hand over the sound of the rushing train, hoping he would notice her.
- hear over the sound of
- barely audible over the sound of
- over the sound of water
Examples
-
"In the distance, over the sound of the trucks moving toward the working edge of the fill, they could hear a siren."
Fiction book (1994) -
And once or twice he heard Grace's voice over the sound of the wind.
Fiction book (1999) -
And over the sound of tumbling water, he asked, "How is she?"
Fiction book (1995) -
Then he hears a growl over the sound of the water running.
Fiction book (1999) -
He can barely hear her through the locked door and over the sounds of the water.
Fiction book (1994) -
If they were making any noise, Ahl was not able to hear it over the sound of water rushing, the creak and groan of wood.
Fiction book (1999) -
She started the car then, still looking at Jennifer, and Jennifer could see her lips moving in the goodbye, but she could not hear her over the sound of the motor.
Fiction book (1992) -
In the bedroom, staying nearer to the door to the house than to the bathroom door, so he could hear over the sound of the shower, Fletch pulled off his boots and his wet clothes.
Fiction book (1994) -
I had to shout to be heard over the sound of the loud music at the party.
-
The teacher struggled to speak over the sound of students chatting in the classroom.
How Audible
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'over' (indicating dominance/above) with 'sound' (noise) and the genitive 'of' to indicate one auditory signal is dominant or masking another; the meaning that something cannot be heard because a louder noise is present is directly inferable from the constituents. This spatial/dominance use of 'over' with sounds is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the words would reliably guess the intended sense.
Etymology
Over the sound of creates a clear picture: someone tries to be heard 'over' a loud sound, like shouting above traffic or thunder. So it means the voice or noise is 'hard to hear' because a louder noise covers it.