chittering

From Middle English chitering, chiterynge, equivalent to chitter + -ing.

Another bird quickly learned to imitate the song of a canary that was mated with it, but as the parrakeet improved in the performance the canary degenerated, and came at last to mingle the other bird's harsh chitterings with its own proper music.

1870, Shirley Hibberd, Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste, page 170:


rasping

en-adj

rasping (comparative more rasping, superlative most rasping)

more rasping (comparative)
most rasping (superlative)

When the opponent has led off with a fine rasping drive, the noble, but somewhat treacherous, spirit of emulation rises in the breast of the rival, and he is tempted to 'press' –ever so little, but just a little too much in order to outdo his antagonist's effort.

1890, Horace Gordon Hutchinson, Golf, page 249:

Myhill gets fingertips onto it and helps the rasping drive onto the bar and over or a corner.

2009, Ian Waterson, Live Through the Dream, page 7777:

Celta then levelled following a crisp move between Daniel Wass, Guidetti and Orellana, the Chilean sending a rasping drive high beyond Casilla.

2016 August 28, “Toni Kroos missile helps Real Madrid down impressive Celta”, in Stuff:

Zeki Amdouni had a rasping long-range drive parried away by David Raya

2023 November 11, Matthew Howarth, “Arsenal 3-1 Burnley”, in BBC Sport:

(sports) Pushing forward with great force.


twerk

Onomatopoeic, possibly coined by Roger Tory Peterson.

Note of male on territory, a loud kurr or twerk.

1961, Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to Western Birds, page 67:

An abrupt call, such as that made by the California quail.


mussitate

en-verb

mussitate (third-person singular simple present mussitates, present participle mussitating, simple past and past participle mussitated)

mussitates (present singular third-person)
mussitating (participle present)
mussitated (participle past)
mussitated (past)

From Latin mussitō (“to keep quiet; to murmur, mutter”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from mussō (“to be silent and respectful; to say in a soft voice, murmur”) (from Proto-Indo-European *mur- (“to murmur”), originally imitative) + -itō (frequentative suffix).

af

Let none dare to think as vve hear ſome one or tvvo begins to muſſitate, that the Magiſtrates miſcarriages about the matters of Religion, does forfault him of his right to govern, and ſo cadens titulo, is no more to be ovvned as King.

1681, “an Healing Hand” [pseudonym; John Bairdy], Balm from Gilead: Or, The Differences about the Indulgence, Stated and Impleaded: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cockerill […], →OCLC, page 162:

Nay, farther, in Isaiah we are taught, concerning those who speak out of the ground, whose voice is as of one who hath a familiar spirit, and whose speech shall whisper, peep, chirp, mutter or mussitate low out of the dust, namely: that they shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, earthquake, great noise, storm and tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire. (xxix. 4, 6.)

1843, William Elder, “In Relation to the Powers and Prerogatives of the Clergy to Rule and Teach, Claimed to be Immediately from on High Independent of the Laity”, in The Genius of Ecclesiastical Freedom; Comprising the Declaration of Divine Order, Made by the First Convention of the New Church in Union County, Indiana; […], Cincinnati, Oh.: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 220:

Enough remains, however, to make one go mussitating in solitary places, like a banished bull μελεος μελεῳ ποδι χηρενων.

1860, Alazon [pseudonym; William Richard Barnes], “XIX [Lord Brougham, Lord George Gordon, Lessons from the East End Riots, the Author’s Fears, Sponsors, and Lord Ebury’s Letter on Ash-Wednesday]”, in Let Well Alone: Or Removal of Blemishes from Church and State, London: Longman & Co. […], →OCLC, page 182:

I have now another visitant [a mouse], a much quieter animal: it rustles about a good deal on first entering, but after a while it subsides into a gentle and very peculiar murmuring sound: […] it is really mussitating, i.e., "to gently murmur," […]

1869 April 1, A. Hall, “Notes and Queries. [Habits of House Mice.]”, in M[ordecai] C[ubitt] Cooke, editor, Hardwicke’s Science-Gossip: An Illustrated Medium of Interchange and Gossip for Students and Lovers of Nature, volume V, number 52, London: Robert Hardwicke, […], published 1870, →OCLC, page 93, column 1:

The boat chugged up to the little stone jetty / without breaking the skin of the water, stretching, / as black as my stout, from somewhere unspeakable / to here, where the foaming lip mussitates endlessly, / trying, with a nutter's persistence, to read / and re-read the shoreline.

1993, Don Paterson, “The Ferryman’s Arms”, in Nil Nil, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 1:

"I, a military man, who might just someday enter politics. Do not cast pearls before gypsies!" he mussitated, walking on, and did not stop until he reached the churchyard, where he faced a peculiar sight.

2014, Magdalena Zyzak, “In which Odolechka is Introduced to the Automobile, a Technology hitherto Largely in the Domain of Rumor”, in The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, pages 44–45:

(intransitive) To talk indistinctly; to mutter.


tooting

These tootings can be sometimes heard at the distance of a mile.

1867, Sewell Newhouse, John Humphrey Noyes, The Trapper's Guide:


rhonchus

Borrowed from Latin rhonchus (“snoring”), from Ancient Greek ῥόγχος (rhónkhos) (Caelius Aurelianus), of imitative origin.

“You have poisoned yourself again!” Humfried emitted an alarming rhonchus.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 699:

(medicine) A dry rattling sound heard during breathing, due to deposits in the bronchial tubes.


nyaa

From the Japanese onomatopoeia にゃあ (nyā).

(anime and manga fandom) The cry of a cat; meow, miaow.


tick-tock

tick tock (alternative)
ticktock (alternative)

ticking#English:_making noise like tick-tock etc

The sound of the ticking of an analog clock.


tick-tock

en-verb

tick-tock (third-person singular simple present tick-tocks, present participle tick-tocking, simple past and past participle tick-tocked)

tick-tocks (present singular third-person)
tick-tocking (participle present)
tick-tocked (participle past)
tick-tocked (past)
tick tock (alternative)
ticktock (alternative)

And so as the clock tick-tocked along at MetLife Stadium on Friday night, the possibility grew into the probability that this frustrating, scoreless quarterfinal between Colombia and Peru would end up in one of those unfortunate, nearly random shootout results.

2016 June 17, Filip Bondy, “Colombia Slumps to Victory Over Peru in Copa América Quarterfinal”, in The New York Times:

To make continual clicking sounds like those of an analog clock; to tick.


tick-tock

tick-tocks (plural)
tick tock (alternative)
ticktock (alternative)

Stepping inside from the courtyard, there was silence except for the tick-tock of the antique grandfather clock in the great hall. The hulking cream-and-gray flagstones underfoot had been worn away from centuries of service.

2023 March 22, Ben West, “This 835-Year-Old English Manor Needs Some Modern Love”, in The New York Times:


kerchoo

kerchoo! (canonical)
katchoo (alternative)

Synonym of achoo, the sound of sneezing.


latrate

latrate (third-person singular simple present latrates, present participle latrating, simple past and past participle latrated)

latrates (present singular third-person)
latrating (participle present)
latrated (participle past)
latrated (past)

From Latin lātrātus (“barked”) taken as a verb via English -ate, from Latin lātrāre (“to bark”). Compare Spanish ladrar (“to bark”). First attested in 1623, originally seemingly as a ghost word.

Latrate, to barke like a dog.

[1623, Henry Cockeram, The English Dictionarie Of 1623, New York: Huntington Press, published 1930, s.v., page 110:

I once saw a big dog plunging out furiously at a passing car, and, as I watched him, his gait looked peculiar. The reason for this eccentricity became clear when he returned from his latrating orgy: he had only three legs.

1928, Charles Hall Grandgent, Prunes and Prism: With Other Odds and Ends, page 145:

[…] Rip ought to know there wasn’t a beggar’s chance of catching one of the birds; all the silly, latrating dogs thus showed off.

1931, Harry Kemp, Love Among the Cape Enders, page 91:

With everything boiling over; with everyone rapping, yakking or latrating, it would restore dignity to a number of America’s newspapers if the objectivity of their reporting would harden in direct proportion to the subjectivity of the story being reported.

1972, Max Wylie, 400 Miles from Harlem: Courts, Crime, and Correction, page 201:


stertor

en-noun

stertor (countable and uncountable, plural stertors)

stertorous respirations

(biology, medicine) A snoring sound, as for example even during wakefulness in infants with breathing difficulties.


squee

2001, Susan, “I got a hamster! Squee!”, in alt.fan.digimon (Usenet):

The new console will certainly have more powerful graphics, processor, hard drive and all those specs that really only nerdy writers for technology websites care about: “Ermahgerd, moar polygons! More frame rate! Squee!”

2013 May 17, Peter Nowak, “There will be buttons: And other truths about the next-gen Xbox”, in The Globe and Mail:

(informal) A squeal of excitement or delight.


whalesong

whalesong (usually uncountable, plural whalesongs)

The sounds through which whales communicate.


kerplunk

From ker- (prefix forming onomatopoeias imitating the effect or sound of a heavy object falling) + plunk (“dull thud of something landing on a surface”).

prefix

Coordinate term: splosh

If my life were a Saturday-morning cartoon, you would have heard a loud kerplunk as my stomach dropped. My poor starving stomach. It was under such stress already, and now this.

2005, Michelle Tea, chapter 15, in Rose of No Man’s Land […], 1st Harvest edition, Orlando, Fla., Austin, Tex.: Harcourt, published 2007, →ISBN, page 125:

(informal) A sound of someone or something falling and landing heavily.


kerplunk

Coordinate term: kersplosh

We flipped to see who'd go first and I won, which meant Claudia had to dial. I called the number out loud for her, and inside me my heart was suddenly going "kerplunk, kerplunk, kerplunk," heavy as an elephant's feet.

1986 November, Eve Bunting, chapter 7, in Sixth-grade Sleepover (An Apple Paperback), New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, →ISBN, page 41:


kerplunk

en-verb

kerplunk (third-person singular simple present kerplunks, present participle kerplunking, simple past and past participle kerplunked)

kerplunks (present singular third-person)
kerplunking (participle present)
kerplunked (participle past)
kerplunked (past)

(intransitive, informal) To make the sound of falling and landing heavily; to thud.


kerpow

A powerful sound of impact or transformation; pow, wham.


kablam

(onomatopoeia) The sound of a loud explosion; pow, blam, bang.


blam

He kicked in the door with a blam.

A sudden, explosive sound, such as is made by a gunshot.


blam

That the last zombie? Here. Let me get that for ya. *BLAM!*


blam

[…] we refer to unsolicited and unwanted advertising as spam. The phenomenon is widespread, and has led people to coin terms for it in other information product or service contexts, such as splog or blam (unsolicited advertisements in blog comments), spim (instant messaging), […]

2012, Martin Peitz, Joel Waldfogel, The Oxford Handbook of the Digital Economy:

To counter this effect, spammers attempt to create links to their sites on other people's pages. The most common targets for this kind of spam are weblogs, the spamming then being known as blog spam, or "blam" for short.

2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, Internet Marketing, SEO & Advertising:

(Internet, informal) Spam posted to a blog.


tin cry

The crackling sound heard when a bar of tin is bent, caused by the crystal twinning in the metal.


a little bit of bread and no cheese

/ə ˌlɪtl̩ ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ nəʊ ˈt͡ʃiːz/

/ə ˈlɪt(ə)l ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ noʊ ˈt͡ʃiz/

En-au-a little bit of bread and no cheese.ogg

Onomatopoeic; the bird’s song is thought to resemble the rhythm of the phrase.

The song of the yellow-hammer consists of little more than a monotone, repeated quickly several times, some emphasis being laid on the last note, which is also uttered at greater length. It is almost the only bird whose note is heard in the heat of a summer's day. The cow-boys in some parts of the country have given the following interpretation to the yellow-hammer's song:— "A lit—tle bit of bread, and no cheese."

1839 July 13, “British Birds”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume VIII, number 467, London: Charles Knight & Co., […], →OCLC, page 266, column 1:

In Devonshire it [the yellowhammer] goes by the names of "Little-bread-and-no-cheese," and "Gladdy." Of the latter name I do not know the origin; that of the former is clear enough; for if the words "A little bit of bread and no cheese" be chanted rapidly in one note, descending at the word "cheese," the performance, both in matter and style, will bear a close resemblance to the bird's song.

1862, C[harles] A[lexander] Johns, “The Yellow Hammer. Emberíza citrinella.”, in British Birds in Their Haunts, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; […], →OCLC, page 192:

[A]s twilight sets in, the Yellow Hammer may still be heard, and is perhaps the last bird to give a parting note to the retiring day, with the exception of his congener the Corn-Bunting, who sings till it is quite dusk. Country people imitate the note of the Yellow Hammer by the words, "a little bit of bread and no cheese," the accent on the last word; but sometimes the utterance alters in tone, the request being for a "little bit of bread and no cheese," the last word being dropped and the accent on the penultimate.

1871–1881, H[enry] E[eles] Dresser, “Emberiza citrinella. (Yellow Bunting.)”, in A History of the Birds of Europe, […], volume IV, London: […] [Taylor and Francis for] the author, […], →OCLC, page 4:

[T]he yellowhammer, who also had words as well as tune, sang his refrain of "a little bit of bread and no cheese," with a tremendous emphasis on the no; […]

1875, [Walter Besant, James Rice], chapter VIII, in With Harp and Crown. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 139:

It is delightful to hear the yellowhammer's song—his only song: "A little bit of bread and no c h e e s e."

1896, “the Amateur Angler” [pseudonym; Edward Marston], “Spring and Summer Rambles”, in By Meadow and Stream: Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Places, London: Sampson Law, Marston and Company […], →OCLC, page 38:

There were several sorts of little birds, twittering different songs. The first one sang—“Who’s bin digging-up my nuts? Who’s-been-digging-up my nuts?” And another sang—“Little bita bread and - no - cheese! Little bit - a - bread an’ - no - cheese!”

1911, Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes, London, New York, N.Y.: Frederick Warne & Co., →OCLC, page 21:

"A little bit of bread and no cheese!" cry the yellowhammers petulantly. But no one takes any notice of them.

1931 May 20, Louis Golding, “A Rosary of Lovely Places”, in The Commonweal: A Weekly Review of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs, volume XIV, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Calvert Publishing Corporation, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

The Africans, it seems, have the British countryman's habit of making a phonetically similar sentence out of a bird's call. The yellow-hammer, for instance, is supposed to say "a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese". In Zande, the laughing dove calls urugu nolu akpi akpi, which can be translated as "the planter of eleusine [a local cereal] will die".

1961 January 26, “Notes and Comments: Bird Calls and Beer Drinking in African Language”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 9, number 219, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 197, column 1:

In Europe the song of the Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) can be heard, with a little poetic licence, as ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’, the Quail (Coturnix coturnix) as ‘wet my lips’.

2015, Nick Baker, “Feathered and Flighty: Birds”, in The Complete Naturalist, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Natural History, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 51:

Emberiza citrinella
Emberiza citrinella#English

(British, idiomatic) Used to represent the song of the yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).


kyoodle

There was a yip and kyoodle for John Brown and "the great deeds of the past."

1956, Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous With Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform:

Liberals everywhere echoed the "yip and kyoodle" of the Osawatomie crowd; conservatives were aghast at Roosevelt's radicalism.

1962, Ernest J. Wrage, Barnet Baskerville, Contemporary forum: American speeches on twentieth-century issues:

A loud, meaningless noise; howl or holler.


kyoodle

kyoodle (third-person singular simple present kyoodles, present participle kyoodling, simple past and past participle kyoodled)

kyoodles (present singular third-person)
kyoodling (participle present)
kyoodled (participle past)
kyoodled (past)

Be known as a booster and crow like a rooster; don't yelp like a bow-wow that's tied to a can; laugh, sing and kyoodle, and blow in some boodle, and help things along like a nice little man.

1884, The Shield: Official Publication of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity:

And now the drought is broken, let's be joyful in our gains. Let's kyoodle, whoop, and holler for these miliion-dollar rains!

1915, Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Isaac Kaufman Funk, William Seaver Woods, The Literary Digest - Volume 51, page 33:

No living thing moved upon it, not even a medicine wolf to kyoodle to the invisible moon.

1977, Richard Sale, The White Buffalo, →ISBN, page 13:

There were many, he said, "who unfold their ample jaws and yip and kyoodle about old John and the Cause of freedom," who, when faced with the modern struggle for reform, "pull down their blinds [and] fasten the doors."

2002, H. Craig Miner, Kansas: The History of the Sunflower State, 1854-2000, page 8:


wheek

The squeaking sound made by a guinea pig or other cavy.

kuikutus

onomatopoeia to symbolize a guinea pig's squeak


chark

chark (third-person singular simple present charks, present participle charking, simple past and past participle charked)

charks (present singular third-person)
charking (participle present)
charked (participle past)
charked (past)

Cognate with Scots chork, from Middle English charken, cherkin, from Old English ċearcian, variant of cracian (“to resound, make an abrasive sound, crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną (“to crack, crackle; to shriek”). Doublet of chirk, crack, and crake.

der

The hoarse charking conversation which they carried on was calculated to support the delusion.

1820, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 7:


chirr

en-verb

chirr (third-person singular simple present chirrs, present participle chirring, simple past and past participle chirred)

chirrs (present singular third-person)
chirring (participle present)
chirred (participle past)
chirred (past)
churr (alternative)

(intransitive) To make the prolonged trilling sound of an insect (e.g. a grasshopper, a cicada).


screak

She did not run against chairs nor move a stool so that the legs emitted a "screak" of agony, and she could sit still for an hour at a time if she had a book.

1898, Amanda Millie Douglas, A Little Girl in Old Boston:


screak

screak (third-person singular simple present screaks, present participle screaking, simple past and past participle screaked)

screaks (present singular third-person)
screaking (participle present)
screaked (participle past)
screaked (past)

The awfulest thing was the silence; there wasn't a sound but the screaking of the saddles, the measured tramplings, and the sneezing of the horses, afflicted by the smothering dust-clouds which they kicked up.

1895 October, Louis de Conte, translated by [Jean François Alden] [pseudonyms; Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)], “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. […]”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XCI, number DXLV, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →ISSN, [book I], part II, chapter XVI, page 746, column 1:

They walk together in silence while behind them a freight train chuffs and screaks through the crossing.

1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 64:

Which'll jar your bones, Jim!...sap your breath...distort your hearing for your own concrete thoughts 'til they screak like the muddled static of distant homily.

1999 July 2, Richard Meltzer, “Vinyl Reckoning”, in Chicago Reader:

He finally does the hit next to the factory, causing the birds to screak and batter their cages.

2003 November 14, Jeff Huebner, “Coming Home”, in Chicago Reader:


churr

churr (third-person singular simple present churrs, present participle churring, simple past and past participle churred)

churrs (present singular third-person)
churring (participle present)
churred (participle past)
churred (past)

Uncertain. Possibly from Middle English *churren, *chirren, *cherren, from Old English ċeorian (“to murmur, grumble, complain”), from Proto-West Germanic *karēn (“to complain”).

inh

Alternative spelling of chirr (“to make an insect sound”)

To make the low vocal sound of some birds.


churr

Alternative spelling of chirr (“insect sound”)


troat

en-verb

troat (third-person singular simple present troats, present participle troating, simple past and past participle troated)

troats (present singular third-person)
troating (participle present)
troated (participle past)
troated (past)

Either onomatopoetic, or akin to throat.


thock

Despite the construction of muffling sheds and sound barriers, the report has continued largely without interruption — thock, thock, thock-thock, thock.

2007 April 7, Andy Newman, “City Islanders Ponder Future Without Gunfire Across Bay”, in New York Times:

A clear, echoing thud, as of an axe chopping wood.


thock

A clear, echoing thud, as of an axe chopping wood or the keys of a mechanical keyboard.


thock

thock (third-person singular simple present thocks, present participle thocking, simple past and past participle thocked)

thocks (present singular third-person)
thocking (participle present)
thocked (participle past)
thocked (past)

The tennis player thocked her racquet on the ground in annoyance.

To make, or cause to make, a thock sound.


thwap

thwap (third-person singular simple present thwaps, present participle thwapping, simple past and past participle thwapped)

thwaps (present singular third-person)
thwapping (participle present)
thwapped (participle past)
thwapped (past)

Reflectors in the road thwapped beneath the tires, setting a regular, almost reassuring pace.

2004, Anthony Doerr, About Grace, page 241:

To make, or cause to make, a heavy smacking sound.


yarr

yarr (third-person singular simple present yarrs, present participle yarring, simple past and past participle yarred)

yarrs (present singular third-person)
yarring (participle present)
yarred (participle past)
yarred (past)

She yapped and yarred and ran in foolish circles, as though quarrelling with her own tail.

And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and every way keeping such a coil with her as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]

1653, François Rabelais, translated by Thomas Urquhart, Gargantua and Pantagruel:

(intransitive, archaic) To growl or snarl like a dog.


yarr

(UK, dialect) The plant Spergula arvensis, corn spurry.


yarr

Yarr, this be a fine ship.

Alternative form of arr (“used stereotypically in imitation of pirates”)


thwop

Tennis may be the quietest sport, with long stretches of respectful silence interrupted only by the thwop of balls being hit.

2009 August 28, Laurel Graeber, “Spare Times: For Children”, in New York Times:


thwop

thwop (third-person singular simple present thwops, present participle thwopping, simple past and past participle thwopped)

thwops (present singular third-person)
thwopping (participle present)
thwopped (participle past)
thwopped (past)


wrawl

wrawl (third-person singular simple present wrawls, present participle wrawling, simple past and past participle wrawled)

wrawls (present singular third-person)
wrawling (participle present)
wrawled (participle past)
wrawled (past)

From Middle English wrawlen. Compare Danish vråle.

Some were of dogs, that barked day and night, And some of cats, that wrawling still did cry.

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Such successours [of Peter] yben to bolde, In winning all ther witte thei wral.

mid 15th century, Thomas Hoccleve, The Plowman's Tale, part 1:

The fog horns groaned and groaned again, and siren whistled and wrawled.

1908, Will Sparks, Philopolis, volume 3, page 139:

Man alone, poore wretch, she hath laid all naked upon the bare earth, even on his birth-day, to cry and wraule presently from the very first houre that he is borne into this worlde.

1601, Philemon Holland, The Historie of the World, Book VII:

Howbeit, crying and wrawling as like as possibly might be to an infant new come into the world.

1603, Plutarch, translated by Philemon Holland, Plutarch's Moralia:

(obsolete, intransitive) To cry like a cat; to waul.


ruttle

ruttle (third-person singular simple present ruttles, present participle ruttling, simple past and past participle ruttled)

ruttles (present singular third-person)
ruttling (participle present)
ruttled (participle past)
ruttled (past)

From Middle English rotelen, ratelen (“to make a rattling sound while breathing, flap”), from Middle Dutch rotelen (“to rattle, wheeze, drone”) or Middle Low German rōtelen, rātelen, rūtelen (“to groan, gasp, rattle”), from Old Saxon hrot, hrod (“snot, mucus”), from Proto-West Germanic *hroþ (“saliva, mucus, snot”), probably ultimately of imitative origin.
Cognate with Dutch reutelen (“to rattle”), German Rotz (“snot”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

Ruttling, heard readily without a stethoscope, is due to air bubbling through fluid in the trachea or bronchi.

1973, Ronald Illingworth, Common Symptoms of Disease in Children, page 144:

His breath ruttled as he blew outward and sent the plants to trembling.

2020, Marly Youmans, Charis in the World of Wonders: A Novel Set in Puritan New England, page 216:

(intransitive, chiefly Northern England) To gurgle; to rattle when breathing.


miaul

en-verb

miaul (third-person singular simple present miauls, present participle miauling, simple past and past participle miauled)

miauls (present singular third-person)
miauling (participle present)
miauled (participle past)
miauled (past)
meowl (alternative)

Compare French miauler, of imitative origin.

"or Lady Penelope is miauling like a starved cat !"

1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

(intransitive, dated) To give the cry of a cat.


brabble

brabble (third-person singular simple present brabbles, present participle brabbling, simple past and past participle brabbled)

brabbles (present singular third-person)
brabbling (participle present)
brabbled (participle past)
brabbled (past)

From Middle Dutch brabbelen (“to quarrel, jabber”). Akin to babble. Compare modern Dutch brabbelen, German brabbeln (“to talk confusedly”).

bor

Farther on, when they came to a miniature glen between the semblance of two hills, down which, in mockery of a torrent, brabbled a slim brown stream, MacLean stood still […]

1902, Mary Johnston, chapter 9, in Audrey, New York: Grosset and Dunlap, page 121:

Down in the middle, among mossy boulders, the beck brabbled through golden sheets of Draba […]

1921, Reginald Farrer, chapter 10, in The Rainbow Bridge, London: E. Arnold & Co, page 181:

To babble (of a stream or other watercourse).


tintamar

nor is there any Motion, or the least tintamar of Trouble in any part of the Country

1655, James Howell, “To my Brother, Dr. Howell”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete) A hideous or confused noise; an uproar; a racket.


craunch

He sat down to write, and occupied himself with certain papers, until there was a far-off sound of wheels: some vehicle was slowly entering the great gates; a craunch upon the gravel sweep.

(archaic) A grinding or crunching sound.


latration

From Latin lātrātio, from lātrāre (“to bark”) + -tiō (“-tion: forming abstract nouns”). Equivalent to latrate + -ion.

If a dog bite a pig, the narrative teems with ‘virus’, the ‘rabid animal’, and the ‘latration’ of the patient

1828, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, number 23, page 194:

But for this barrier, the theological Cerberus would find himself turning so few passengers from its gate, that he would soon, himself, weary of his wearisome latrations.

What then must have been the effect upon the eminent philologist of the midnight latrations of Fernando Wood's yellow dog?

1925, Joseph Bucklin Bishop, Notes and anecdotes of many years, page 75:

And rather a latration of yaps and yowls as a harum-scarum of dogs swept past.

(now rare) Barking, an instance of barking.


oblatration

From Latin oblātrātio, from oblātrāre (“to bark at, to rail against”) + -tiō (“-tion: forming abstract nouns”), from ob- (“ob-: against, at”) + lātrāre (“to bark, to rant”). Equivalent to ob- + latration.

February 18 1629, Bishop Joseph Hall, Salvation from an Untoward Generation
The Apostle fears none of these currish oblatrations...

He that feareth oblatration must not travel.

1661, John Stephens, An Historical Discourse..., Prol.

1867, William Gifford (of Leith), Memorials of the life and work of the Rev. William Johnston
You were never a very hot Voluntary, even when some, who are now among the dumb dogs that cannot or will not bark, were keeping up a most violent oblatration...

(obsolete) The act of barking at someone or something; (figuratively) the act of ranting at someone or something; an instance of these.


ooh-ah-ah

/ˈʔuːˌʔɑːˌʔɑː/

onomatopoeic

Imitative

(onomatopoeia) Synonym of oo oo aa aa (“used to represent the sound of a monkey's cry”)


bakaw

Saying this in the nicest way possible.... BAKAW BUK BUK BACAW

2000 January 10, NetGuy [username], “Re: Hello Guys!!”, in alt.romance.teen (Usenet):

She's just a big chicken.
 Bawk, bawk, bakaw!

2002 April 27, Jim Larson, “Re: (spoilers ahoy!) okay well I've given up”, in alt.tv.farscape (Usenet):

The one-eyed butcher's stall, with its buckets of guts and crates of eggs, stood before me. I could see the one-eyed butcher perched behind a massive chopping block, swiftly hacking away.
BAWK! BAWK! BA-KAW!

2012, Wai Chin, Chook Chook: Mei's Secret Pets, University of Queensland Press, →ISBN:


wough

As it scrambled swiftly over the edge it caught sight of the elephant and with a deep "wough!" charged straight at it.

The trapper shouted and waved his cap; whereupon, to his amazement, the bear uttered a loud "wough" and charged straight down on him--only to fall a victim to misplaced boldness.

1884, Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches:

Bough wough, The watch dogs bark, Bough wough, Hark, hark!

1863, Various, The Children's Garland from the Best Poets:


whoof

Thor rose from beside the rock with a prodigious whoof that roused Muskwa.

1918, James Oliver Curwood, The Grizzly King:

A little whoof, like the sound that would be made by a baby and it asleep, came from Cona'n.

1920, James Stephens, Irish Fairy Tales:


hizz

en-verb

hizz (third-person singular simple present hizzes, present participle hizzing, simple past and past participle hizzed)

hizzes (present singular third-person)
hizzing (participle present)
hizzed (participle past)
hizzed (past)

To have a thousand with red burning spits / Come hizzing in upon 'em!

c. 1605–1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 3, scene 6:

The Wheels and Horses Hoofs hizzd as they past them ore.


nyan

From the Japanese onomatopoeia にゃん (nyan).

(anime and manga fandom) The cry of a cat; meow, miaow.


prusten

From the German verb prusten (“to sneeze, to snort”).

He made a sound, a snort from his nostrils. I pricked up my ears. He did it a second time. I was astonished. Prusten?

2001, Yann Martel, chapter 57, in Life of Pi, Canongate, published 2003, →ISBN, page 163:

Prusten is the quietest of tiger calls, a puff through the nose to express friendliness and harmless intentions.

A sound made by tigers and snow leopards without the intent to threaten, producing a breathy snort by blowing through the nostrils whilst the mouth is closed — a low-frequency equivalent of the purring found in domestic cats.


chuffle

chuffle (third-person singular simple present chuffles, present participle chuffling, simple past and past participle chuffled)

chuffles (present singular third-person)
chuffling (participle present)
chuffled (participle past)
chuffled (past)

Onomatopoeic, but compare chuff (the sound of the exhaust of a steam engine) and -le (verbal suffix conveying frequentativity).

(intransitive, of a tiger or snow leopard) To produce prusten.


nyao

From the Japanese onomatopoeia にゃお (nyao).

Scorpion's body dropped to the ground as Felicia turned back into a cat. With a barely audible "nyao," she then began to lick and clean herself off.

1994 December 13, Mark Maestas, “Dream Tournament 3: Round 1 Results, Part 2”, in rec.games.video.arcade (Usenet):

Luna looked at me with a very skeptical face, "Nyao?!"
It must have been a cat's way of saying, 'You've got to be kidding!'

1997 August 16, Terra, “[XOver] [FanFic] Star98 - Episode 2: The Lost Senshi”, in rec.arts.anime.fandom (Usenet):

I'd Be The Family Kitty Cat! Nyao! Heehee! :::lies down on a rug and purrs:::

2001 March 25, Aylakitty [username], “Re: If AFD was a family...”, in alt.fan.digimon (Usenet):


gekker

Spelling variant of gecker, originating at the latest by 1972.


gekker

gekker (third-person singular simple present gekkers, present participle gekkering, simple past and past participle gekkered)

gekkers (present singular third-person)
gekkering (participle present)
gekkered (participle past)
gekkered (past)

(specifically of foxes) To make a series of stuttering throaty vocalizations when encountering a rival.


rraup

Vervet monkeys have several different sorts of call, including "leopard alarm barks," "eagle rraups," and "snake chutters" (Struhsaker, 1967).

1985, Alison Jolly, The Evolution of Primate Behavior, page 75:

The vervet's main claim to fame, however, lies in its alarm calls, in which it distinguishes between different types of predator: a chutter warns of the presence of a snake; a rraup is uttered when an eagle is spotted; a chirp is used for lions[…]

1995, Stanisław Puppel, The Biology of Language, page 3:

An alarm call used by vervets to warn of the presence of an eagle.


chutter

An alarm call used by vervets to warn of the presence of a snake.


sonophobia

Patients with this condition often develop so-called sonophobia marked by fears of and/or aversions to sounds that individuals with normal hearing tolerate easily and find innocuous.

2013, David Brian Arciniegas, Management of Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury, Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 403, →ISBN:

There is no aura, there is some photophobia, sonophobia, and he goes to bed if possible.

1999, Bernard Swerdlow, Whiplash and Related Headaches, Boca Raton: CRC-Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 595, →ISBN:

Like migraine headache, hemicrania continua is associated with nausea and vomiting, as well as sonophobia and phonophobia.

2019 September 19, Steven D. Waldman, Atlas of Uncommon Pain Syndromes E-Book, Amsterdam: Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 11, →ISBN:

An unusual fear of sounds (especially loud noises).


queek

From reeds moorhens called to each other, the sounds light metallic “queeks.”

2007, Samuel F. Pickering, Edinburgh Days: Or, Doing what I Want to Do, page 169:

A vocal sound produced by certain birds.


queek

queek (third-person singular simple present queeks, present participle queeking, simple past and past participle queeked)

queeks (present singular third-person)
queeking (participle present)
queeked (participle past)
queeked (past)


queek

A soft “Queek, queek!” made her look up and listen.

1865, Louisa May Alcott, Nelly's Hospital:

No nest was to be seen, no parent birds hovered overhead, and little Robin could only tell its troubles in that mournful “Queek, queek, queek!”

2002?, James Marten, The Boy of Chancellorville and Other Civil War Stories (page 67)


sploosh

Onomatopoeic; compare splish, splash, and splosh for typically small, medium, and large objects respectively.


sploosh

sploosh (third-person singular simple present splooshes, present participle splooshing, simple past and past participle splooshed)

splooshes (present singular third-person)
splooshing (participle present)
splooshed (participle past)
splooshed (past)


shoosh

Many women hear the shoosh—shoosh of the unborn heart at the first prenatal exam and see the face of their moving, growing unborn child in an ultrasound image early in the second trimester.

1988, Camille S. Williams, “Abortion and Equality Under the Law”, in Neil L. York, editor, Toward A More Perfect Union: Six Essays on the Constitution, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 151:

Shoosh! Shoosh! Ouch! The tragic deaths of Sonny Bono and Michael Kennedy remind us that sliding down the side of a mountain, like any recreational activity, must be approached with safety in mind.

2002, John C. Myre, Live Safely in a Dangerous World, Safety Times, →ISBN, page 182:


shoosh

As I drove through the vacant lot, the only sounds were the crunch of gravel beneath my tires and the yawp of blue jays overhead and the shoosh of wind through the pines.

2012 [1990], Scott Russell Sanders, “"After the Flood"”, in Earth Works: Selected Essays, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 97:

I'm a small sea captain, tasting the day's weather—battering rams at the seawall, a spray of grapeshot on my mother's brave geraniums, or the lulling shoosh-shoosh of a full mirrory pool

2008 [1962], Sylvia Plath, “Ocean 1212-W”, in Johnny Panic and the bible of dreams : short stories, prose, and diary excerpts, New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, →ISBN, page 20:

The only sound a skier brings to the woods is the occasional creak of a rucksack strap and the faint “shoosh” of skis gliding over the crisp snow.

1970, Pat Snook, “Ski Touring”, in National Wildlife, volume 8, numbers Dec 1969–Jan 1970, page 23:

He visually picked his way through the alpine, hearing the shoosh of his skis in the otherwise silent world.

2018, Dani Collins, On the Edge, Tule, →ISBN, page 34:


shoosh

shoosh (third-person singular simple present shooshes, present participle shooshing, simple past and past participle shooshed)

shooshes (present singular third-person)
shooshing (participle present)
shooshed (participle past)
shooshed (past)

"Sh!"
"I won't shoosh!["]

1916, George Barr McCutcheon, From the Housetops, Chicago, New York: M. A. Donohue, page 110:

She raised two fingers to Boogaloo's lips, lightly touched them, shooshed him quiet.

2012, Fred Arroyo, “A Case of Consolation”, in Western Avenue and Other Fictions (Camino del Sol), Tucson: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 8:

Actually, what she'd be telling him now was to get Ed home. Because he was really crying.
'Shoosh Ed, shoosh little Eddie-boy.'

2021, Breton Dukes, “What Sort of Man”, in What Sort of Man and other stories, Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press, →ISBN:

To shush, to hush, to be quiet; to tell someone to be quiet.


tocking

The clicking sound of the hands of a clock.


howlround

(electronics) A high-pitched squeal produced by feedback when a microphone is too close to its connected speakers.


lidden

From earlier leaden, ledden, leden, from Middle English leden, liden, lyden, from Old English lēoden, lȳden (“speech, language”), related to Scots leid (“language”). See leid.
Alternative etymology derives lidden from Old English hlȳd, hlȳden (“sound, noise, clamour, din”) or Old Norse hljóð (“sound, clap, roar, ringing, tone, tune”). Compare also Old English lēoþ (“song, tune, poem”).

der

She kept up this lidden all through breakfast, and the meal was no sooner cleared away than she slipped on a shawl and stepped across to the churchyard to discuss the robbery.

1905, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “Frenchman's Creek”, in Shakespeare's Christmas and other stories:

(archaic, dialectal) A saying, song or story.


ratatat

ratatats (plural)
rat-a-tat (alternative)
rat-tat (alternative)

onom

imitative

A single narrow iron-clamped door formed the only means of entrance. On this our guide knocked with a peculiar postman-like rat-tat.

1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Tragedy of Pondicherry Lodge”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 72:


woodnote

If Jonsons learned sock be on, / Or sweetest Shakespear fancies childe, / Warble his native Wood-notes wilde, ...

(poetic) A natural musical sound, like birdsong in a forest.


kabam

(onomatopoeia) The sound of a loud explosion; pow, blam, bang.


drant

From Scots drant, draunt (“droning or drawling tone”), borrowed from Scottish Gaelic dranndan, draundan (“hum, buzzing, complaint, growl, snarl”), akin to Irish dranntan (“hum, buzzing, growl”).


chirl

en-verb

chirl (third-person singular simple present chirls, present participle chirling, simple past and past participle chirled)

chirls (present singular third-person)
chirling (participle present)
chirled (participle past)
chirled (past)

(Scotland, intransitive) To emit a low sound; to warble.


gronk

gronk (third-person singular simple present gronks, present participle gronking, simple past and past participle gronked)

gronks (present singular third-person)
gronking (participle present)
gronked (participle past)
gronked (past)

A raven gronked along the timber-covered ridge line, and a cool breeze swept down from the snow-covered peaks.

2001, G. Stewart Nash, The Last Three Hundred Miles, page 96:

Juan Bautista handed the raven off to a perch—it gronked and protested—and took a seat on his couch.

2007, Kage Baker, The Graveyard Game, page 34:

The rush of water behind me, the soft drip from the trees, ravens gronking far off—these were the only sounds I heard.

2017, Robert Michael Pyle, Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide, unnumbered page:


chup

The blackbirds and robins and and^([sic]) tits and finches shout at each other, chups and warbles and chirrups that, loosely translated, mean “Fancy a shag?”, “Get OFF my land” or “I’ve got a great big tonker.”

2015 April 16, Richard P. Grant, “Sex and the successful fundraiser”, in The Guardian:

A short, loud, and urgent sound, usually of a bird.


chup

chup (third-person singular simple present chups, present participle chupping, simple past and past participle chupped)

chups (present singular third-person)
chupping (participle present)
chupped (participle past)
chupped (past)

(intransitive, of a bird) To make a short, loud, and urgent sound.


heart murmur

en-noun

heart murmur (countable and uncountable, plural heart murmurs)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-heart murmur.wav

(medicine) A sound produced when blood is pumped across a heart valve, loud enough to be heard with a stethoscope and often (but not necessarily) indicative of a physiological defect in the heart.


bird chorus

He went back to bed and dozed till the dawn came – the mass-produced invariable tropical dawn, greeted by no bird-chorus, a dawn assignable to all months in this land of no seasons.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 301:

The collective singing and vocalising of birds.


braaam

Most agree that Hollywood's obsession with braaams began with a series of trailers for Christopher Nolan's 2010 film, Inception. But just who invented them is "a very, very, very touchy subject," according to Bobby Gumm, head of music for Trailer Park, the company behind such braaam-filled trailers as Mad Max: Fury Road and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.

2015, Seth Abramovitch, “'Braaams' for Beginners: How a Horn Sound Ate Hollywood”, in Hollywood Reporter:

From Zimmer’s Batman scores, via the many knockoffs for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to Marco Beltrami’s score for World War Z, the main ingredients — churning strings hectically repeating the same four- or five-note motif, with a BRAAAM dropping every so often — are both pulse-quickening and exhausting.

2016, Adrian Daub, “'BRAAAM!': The Sound that Invaded the Hollywood”, in Longreads:

The ominous braaam, the sinister boardroom, the horrific imagery, the cloaked cult members, embryonic deformity, Jason Isaac’s German accent, mad scientists’ labs: it’s all very intriguing stuff… then I saw the running time.

2017, Benedict Seal, “Why I’m Worried About the Running Time of 'A Cure for Wellness'”, in Bloody Disgusting:

Falling firmly into the aforementioned ‘braams’ category and far beyond, each patch is sample driven, being completely derived from the original recorded content, while allowing for real-time control of high- and low-pass filtering and EQ.

2019, Dave Gale, “Review: Audio Imperia Talos Volume Two: Low Brass”, in Music Tech:

A low, loud sound, originally produced by brass instruments and a prepared piano but sometimes made synthetically, included in film and trailer scores to increase audience stress.


sploop

(slang) The sound of something wet and gooey; splat.


quork

en-verb

quork (third-person singular simple present quorks, present participle quorking, simple past and past participle quorked)

quorks (present singular third-person)
quorking (participle present)
quorked (participle past)
quorked (past)

They quork a few times during their apparent morning inspecting for intruders and return down the valley to the pond.

1989, Bernd Heinrich, Ravens in Winter, page 259:

He could hear the ravens quork'''ing and complaining in the rookery above.

2000, George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, page 549:

A raven quorks from high above the Hills Pond as we stroll Alder Brook Road.

2011, John M. Marzluff, Colleen Marzluff, Dog Days, Raven Nights, page 241:


kackle

kackle (third-person singular simple present kackles, present participle kackling, simple past and past participle kackled)

kackles (present singular third-person)
kackling (participle present)
kackled (participle past)
kackled (past)

The following table also shows the size and length of the hitching for the eye, the size and length of the seizing, the length of rounding for kackling, and the length to kackle each cable.

1858, Charles Bushell, The rigger's guide, page 253:

The tip of the shaft has a whipping of sinew-braid 1¾ inches deep, “kackled” down on both edges, one end of the twine on each edge, so that the hitch made by one end crosses the round turn of the other, making in all twenty-six turns.

1892, J.W. Powell, Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution:


kackle

As soon as she got outside I heard her kackle, kackle, on to the pantry, where she said to the charwoman, “I never saw or read about or heard tell of such a man.”

1923, Thomas Martin Lindsay, Janet Ross, Letters of Principal T. M. Lindsay to Janet Ross, page 23:

While we were all kneeling in prayer these hens set up a kackle, kackle, kackle and made such a noise that it drowned the Voice of the brother in prayer.

2015, James R. Columbia, Dispatches From Ruggles, page 88:


kackle

They don't kackle like the hen, nor kro like the rooster, nor holler like the peakok, nor scream like the goose, nor turk like the turkey; but they quack like a root dokter, and their bill resembles a vetenary surgeon's.

1876, Josh Billings (Henry W. Shaw), The Complete Works of Josh Billings, page 179:

But when the dirt gets in the needle valve, and the Doldrum .60 crackles and kackles, and that sneaky warp comes back again — well, let it happen on enough week-ends — and you'll even consider putting up the storm windows.

Moralizing statements are now only half serious—'We men are somewhat akin to laying Hens: for if we mind to doe any good, we presently proclaime and kackle it abroad . . .” (The Pursuit, p. 62)—as the world itself has become more chaotic.

1986, Paul Salzman, English Prose Fiction 1558-1700: A Critical History, page 210:

When we kackle like your uncle Sal at "Yey Whazzup Make Up" by Pssing Stones, the sublime recontextualized Rolling Stones' video (by StS, the same genius that brought us the "Shreds" Youtube^([sic]) clips) that in its endgame brings us the hyper-reality of a bunch of absurd middle-aged rock dinosaurs chump-changing us with a cardboard-cut-out-cartoon-rebellion with even less fiber and nutrition than that Cinnamon Toast Crunch enema I mentioned earlier, we inch closer to a resolve of the problems brought by your sides aching of convulsive laughter upon repeated viewing of the Hitler lip where he finds out about Oasis canceling their tour.

2012, Johan Kugelberg, Brad Pitt's Dog: Essays on Fame, Death, Punk:


quaake

quaake (third-person singular simple present quaakes, present participle quaaking, simple past and past participle quaaked)

quaakes (present singular third-person)
quaaking (participle present)
quaaked (participle past)
quaaked (past)

The duck drinks, plays in the water with her bill, picks her feathers, and quaakes like a living one.

1785, James Ridgway, A Dictionary of Literary Conversation:

Obsolete spelling of quack (“make a noise like a duck”).


quaake

Obsolete spelling of quack (“noise made by a duck”).


potrack

potrack (third-person singular simple present potracks, present participle potracking, simple past and past participle potracked)

potracks (present singular third-person)
potracking (participle present)
potracked (participle past)
potracked (past)

"Dem guineas potracked en waked me up, Son," whispered Neptune. "Now I aims to git whut 's been sneakin' off wid my fowls."

1920, Marie Conway Oernler, “IV: The Soul of Black Folks”, in The Purple Heights, New York: Century Co.:

Cocks crowed, guineas potracked, calves and goats bleated. A strain of music sang out above the confusion of sounds[…]

1932, Julia Mood Peterkin, chapter V, in Bright Skin: A Novel, University of Georgia Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 43:

Come de daybreak you hear de guinea fowls start potracking down at de edge of de woods lot, and den de roosters all start up 'round de barn and de ducks finally wake up and jine in.

1941, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, volume 13, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, →OCLC, page 334:

(archaic, chiefly African-American Vernacular) To make such a shrill, high-pitched noise.


raeb

raebs (plural)
rhaeb (alternative)
raab (alternative)

The sound of a male mallard's call, or a similar call of other duck species.


rebel yell

en-noun

rebel yell (countable and uncountable, plural rebel yells)

A cry used by Confederate troops in the American Civil War, to intimidate Union troops.


katchoo

katchoo! (canonical)
kerchoo (alternative)

SIR GORGEOUS [Sneezes and looks about him] Katchoo! Kazz-ee! Oh, D. this cough!

1951, Huge McCrae, The Ship of Heaven, volume I, page 19:

Synonym of achoo, characteristic sound of a person sneezing.


jingle-jangle

jingle-jangles (plural)
jinglejangle (alternative)

Something that makes such sound, such as a trinket or ornament.


jingle-jangle

en-verb

jingle-jangle (third-person singular simple present jingle-jangles, present participle jingle-jangling, simple past and past participle jingle-jangled)

jingle-jangles (present singular third-person)
jingle-jangling (participle present)
jingle-jangled (participle past)
jingle-jangled (past)
jinglejangle (alternative)

(intransitive) To make a jingling or jangling sound.


meaow

meaow (third-person singular simple present meaows, present participle meaowing, simple past and past participle meaowed)

meaows (present singular third-person)
meaowing (participle present)
meaowed (participle past)
meaowed (past)


gecker

Coined by 1962, likely derived from Low German geck (“to mock, cackle”) from related terms such as German gackern (“to cackle”) and German keckern (“to make angry noises [of an animal]”). The same call types had previously been referred to as types of keckern in German publications. Possibly also onomatopoeic from “ik, ik, ik.”

cog

The series of stuttering throaty vocalizations (usually described as: chattering, chittering, cackling, squeaking, or yakking) in the manner of some primates, jackals, mongooses, and foxes.


gecker

en-verb

gecker (third-person singular simple present geckers, present participle geckering, simple past and past participle geckered)

geckers (present singular third-person)
geckering (participle present)
geckered (participle past)
geckered (past)
gekker (alternative)

To make a series of stuttering throaty vocalizations (usually described as: chattering, chittering, cackling, squeaking, or yakking) in the manner of some primates, jackals, mongooses, and foxes.


oo oo aa aa

/ˈʔuːʔuː ˈʔɑːʔɑː/

/ˈʔuʔu ˈʔɑʔɑ/

onomatopoeic

Imitative

Holonyms: monkeyese, monkeyspeak

[He] asked to meet me in front of the monkey cage at the zoo in Jardin des Plantes. I'm standing there waiting, leaning against the fence eating licorice, when I hear behind me, "Oo, oo! Aa, aa!" And wouldn't you know, he's leaping up and down wearing a gorilla mask—and probably a two-thousand-euro Lanvin suit—doing monkey impressions, and he finishes by throwing himself into the bushes. I died laughing! What lunatic would be so elegant and so bananas?

2007, Kirsten Lobe, chapter 7, in French Trysts: Secrets of a Courtesan, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin, St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 91:

The minute I start eating, two lads I can only describe as retards on Prozac started making monkey calls and picking on me. ‘Oo oo aa aa, hey monkey man, want a banana?’ Said one of them.

2011, Eddie Kwadjo Danso, “Living the Life”, in Cockney Zulu, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 78:

"He said he's got a pet monkey!" shouted Bobby. […] "Of course it doesn't talk!" interrupted Suzie Limpten, the class know-it-all. "They make noises, you know, like ooh-ooh, aah-aah!"

2012, Deshka Peneff, “Eric the Parrot”, in Monkey Tales, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, published 15 April 2013, →ISBN, page 17:

Max and Kai had fun and returned to play regularly. Finishing a rally, Max [a monkey] hollered, "Oo-oo, Aa-aa!"

2016, Oliver [Clyde] Chin, edited by Don Menn, The Year of the Monkey: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac = 十二生肖故事系列：猴年的故事 (Tales from the Chinese Zodiac; 11), San Francisco, Calif.: Immedium, →ISBN:

Planet of the Apes by George Racket / Ooh-ooh, aah-aah! Ooh-ooh, aah-aah! / Ooh-ooh, aah-aah! Ooh-ooh, aah-aah! / Ch-ch-ch-chimp, chimp, chimp in outer space / Said goodbye to the human race / The first on Earth to ever escape, / To find his very own personal p-p-p-planet of the apes.

2022, Tom Fletcher, “Track 5: Armstrong”, in Space Band, London: Puffin Books, →ISBN:

"See? There's only the two of us, and your Frankie wouldn't ever let anything happen to you. Okay? Now, eat your banana, little monkey." She nodded at Annabelle's hand. "Go ahead, Anna Banana." Annabelle looked down. […] "Oo-oo-aa-aa," she whispered.

2024, Robin W. Pearson, chapter 1, in Kathryn S. Olson, editor, Dysfunction Junction […], Carol Stream, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, →ISBN, page 5:

(onomatopoeia) Used to represent the sound of a monkey's cry.

u u á á

used to represent the sound of a monkey’s cry


phee-call

Hence, we have found age-dependent differences in phee-call production and a consistent change in the response received across the adult life-span.

2009 February 5, H-C Chen, G Kaplan, L J Rogers, “Contact calls of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus): influence of age of caller on antiphonal calling and other vocal responses”, in American Journal of Primatology, volume 71, number 2, →DOI:

The phee-call production rates of each infant's parents during development are shown in Fig. 4G

2015 August 14, D. Y. Takahashi, A. R. Fenley, Y. Teramoto, D. Z. Narayanan, J. I. Borjon, P. Holmes, A. A. Ghazanfar, “The developmental dynamics of marmoset monkey vocal production”, in Science, volume 349, number 6249, →DOI, pages 734–738:

Their analysis showed that marmosets use these phee-calls to address specific individuals within their social groups. Moreover, the monkeys demonstrated an ability to discern when a call was directed at them and responded more accurately to such targeted communication.

2024 August 29, “Marmoset Monkeys Use ‘Names’: A Leap in Primate Communication”, in ScienceBlog, retrieved 2024-08-31:

A specialized vocalization from marmosets that identifies them individually.


wet my lips

Used to represent the call of the common quail