sing
/ˈsɪŋ/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms sings singing sang sung sungen singest sangest sungest singeth
- verb (intransitive) To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice. “"I really want to sing in the school choir," said Vera.”
- verb (intransitive) To perform a vocal part in a musical composition, regardless of technique.
- verb (transitive) To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization. “sing a lullaby”
- verb (transitive) To soothe with singing. “to sing somebody to sleep”
- verb (ornithology) To produce a 'song', for the purposes of defending a breeding territory or to attract a mate.
- verb (literary) To produce any type of melodious vocalisation.
- verb (idiomatic) To rejoice. “My heart was singing.”
- verb (slang, idiomatic, intransitive) To confess under interrogation.
- noun The act, or event, of singing songs. “I sometimes have a quick sing in the shower.”
- noun Any sound likened to human singing.
- proper noun A surname from English [in turn originating as an occupation].
- proper noun A surname from Chinese.
- proper noun a Sikh surname
Synonyms
whistle spill the beans let the cat out of the bag talk tattle blab peach babble babble out blab out
Antonyms
Etymology
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”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To utter sounds with musical inflections or melodious modulations of voice, as fancy may dictate, or according to the notes of a song or tune, or of a given part (as alto, tenor, etc.) in a chorus or concerted piece.
- verb To utter sweet melodious sounds, as birds do. On every bough the briddes heard I sing. Chaucer.
- verb To utter with musical infections or modulations of voice.
- verb To celebrate is song; to give praises to in verse; to relate or rehearse in numbers, verse, or poetry. Milton.
Etymology [AS. singan; akin to D. zingen, OS. & OHG. singan, G. singen, Icel. syngja, Sw. sjunga, Dan. synge, Goth. siggwan, and perhaps to E. say, v.t., or cf. Gr. Singe, Song.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sing”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details