sing

The act, or event, of singing songs.

Noun

  1. The act, or event, of singing songs.
    • I sometimes have a quick sing in the shower.
    • Then all three would go off in search of the first, give it a good talking to and maybe a bit of a sing as well. - 1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 55:
    • Some of the young folks asked Mrs. Long could they have a sing at her home that Sunday afternoon; she readily agreed, telling them to come early, bring their songbooks, and have a good sing. - 2002, Martha Mizell...
  2. Any sound likened to human singing.
    • heard the unmistakable twang of bowstrings against bracers, the sing of a long-bow volley, and made for the door - 1921, Gilbert Frankau, The Seeds of Enchantment:
    • the sing of axe on concrete - a. 1972, Sandy Cunningham, Far Back Down:
    • Archie and Clem know gunshots when they hear them and the sing of a bullet as it drills the windshield and exits the back glass of the truck. - 2007, Sam L. Bevard, Through the Back Gate:

Origin

From Middle English singen, from Old English singan (“to sing”), from Proto-West Germanic *singwan, from Proto-Germanic *singwaną (“to sing”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to recite, sing”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sjunge (“to sing”), West Frisian sjonge (“to sing”), Dutch zingen (“to sing”), German Low German singen (“to sing”), German singen (“to sing”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synge (“to sing”), Swedish sjunga (“to sing”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Faroese, and Icelandic syngja (“to sing”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”).

Forms

sings

Related

jook-sing singe sing-sing

Derived

filksing sing-in singjay sing-off singsong

Verb

  1. To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.
    • "I really want to sing in the school choir," said Vera.
    • And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders, and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. -...
  2. To perform a vocal part in a musical composition, regardless of technique.
  3. To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization.
    • sing a lullaby
    • In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road. - 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art,...
  4. To soothe with singing.
    • to sing somebody to sleep
  5. Of birds, to vocalise:

    1. (ornithology) To produce a 'song', for the purposes of defending a breeding territory or to attract a mate.

    2. (literary) To produce any type of melodious vocalisation.

      • ⁠I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing: And unto one her note is gay, ⁠For now her little ones have ranged; ⁠And unto one her note is changed, Because her brood is stol’n away. - 1850, [Alfred,...
      • The evening was still very warm, and the birds in the woods were singing in praise of spring. - 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 68:
  6. To rejoice
    • My heart was singing.
  7. To confess under interrogation.
  8. To make a small, shrill sound.
    • The air sings in passing through a crevice.
    • a singing kettle
    • O'er his head the flying spear / Sang innocent, and spent its force in air. - 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book XXII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […]...
  9. To relate in verse; to celebrate in poetry; to praise.
    • Who would not ſing for Lycidas? he knew / Himſelf to ſing, and build the lofty rhyme. - 1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for...
    • Again I bid the mournful Goddeſs write / The fond Purſuit of fugitive Delight: / Bid her exalt her melancholy Wing, / And rais'd from Earth, and ſav'd from Paſſion, ſing / Of human Hope by croſs Event deſtroyed, / Of...
    • If chocolate is America’s most magnificent culinary obsession — and it seems to be, what with best-selling books either admitting the chocolatoholic tendencies of the author or singing the joys of the stuff — then...
  10. To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent.
    • The sauce really makes this lamb sing.
    • [Alissa Monte said] “This result was all about demonstrating that LZ [the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment] works, and it does! As we take more data and mature our analyses, we get to make LZ sing. […]” - 2022 July 7, Sonia...
  11. To be capable of being sung; to produce a certain effect by being sung.
    • No song sings well unless it is open-vowelled, and has the rhythmic stress on the vowels. Tennyson's songs, for instance, are not generally adapted to music. - 1875, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 118, page 685:
  12. In traditional Aboriginal culture, to direct a supernatural influence on (a person or thing), usually malign; to curse.
    • ‘He says the Walcott Inlet men have sung him, and this tribe will meet the Walcott men and fight when the big walk-about comes, after the peanut season.’ - 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and...
    • ‘We sung them two real good. We never give Louis Beck no place to find rest from his torment.’ - 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 343:

Forms

sings singing sang sung sungen no-table-tags glossary sing singest sangest sungest singeth -

Synonyms

sing

Antonyms

lip-sync lip sync mime mouth

Hypernyms

utter vocalize

Hyponyms

belt belt out carol chant croon hymn intonate intone lilt scat serenade warble yodel

Related

song

Derived

all-singing all-dancing all-singing-and-dancing besing countersing foresing forsing go sing mis-sing New Guinea singing dog outsing oversing overtone singing part singing resing scat singing sight sing singability singable sing a different tune singalong sing along sing-along singback singer