Home UK English chirr

Meaning of chirr in English:

chirr

(also churr)

Pronunciation /tʃəː/

See synonyms for chirr on Thesaurus.com

verb

[no object]

  • (of an insect) make a prolonged low trilling sound.

    ‘grasshoppers were chirring’
    • ‘Wood pigeons were churring, providing a steady contra-bass to a splendid dawn chorus, but no more cuckoo.’
    • ‘In the trees a pair of wood pigeons churred away happily.’
    • ‘‘Calm, calm,’ she chirred softly, a finger touching my jaw and hushing my stumbling chatter.’
    • ‘Catching a breath she inched forward and chirred to herself.’
    • ‘Beside me the Sathe muttered and chirred in her sleep, in waking.’
    • ‘They whirred, clicked, chirred and rattled till she dumped the whole teeming mass of them on the bed.’
    • ‘The animals of the forest were largely quiet, and the locusts chirred intermittently.’
    • ‘The road turned away from town and the hills rolled; the trees, bunched in groves, crickets chirring infrequently in the eve.’
    • ‘As you hike up through the gracious park, dotted with palaces turned museums, crickets chirr in the plane trees and pines.’
    • ‘I had watched over her while she slept, listening to her chirr in pain as the wagon bumped her around…’
    trill, sing, chirp, chirrup, chirr, cheep, twitter, tweet, whistle, chatter, squeak, pipe, peep
    trill, trilling, song, birdsong, cry, warbling, chirp, chirping, chirrup, chirruping, chirr, chirring, cheep, cheeping, twitter, twittering, tweet, tweeting, whistle, whistling, chatter, chattering, squeak, squeaking, pipe, piping, peep, peeping, call, calling

noun

  • A low trilling sound.

    ‘the chirr of summer crickets’
    • ‘One was short, downward inflected, and frequency modulated that we have termed a ‘churr’ (corresponding to the ‘chin’ of Willis 1985).’
    trill, trilling, song, birdsong, cry, warbling, chirp, chirping, chirrup, chirruping, chirr, chirring, cheep, cheeping, twitter, twittering, tweet, tweeting, whistle, whistling, chatter, chattering, squeak, squeaking, pipe, piping, peep, peeping, call, calling

Origin

Early 17th century imitative.