sing
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English singen, from Old English singan, from Proto-West Germanic *singwan, from Proto-Germanic *singwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ-. Cognate with German singen (“to sing”).
![]() | Recorded singing from a person.
|
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]sing (third-person singular simple present sings, present participle singing, simple past sang, past participle sung or (archaic) sungen)
- (intransitive) To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.
- "I really want to sing in the school choir," said Vera.
- (intransitive) To perform a vocal part in a musical composition, regardless of technique.
- (transitive) To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization.
- sing a lullaby
- 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion[1], page 266:
- In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.
- (transitive) To soothe with singing.
- to sing somebody to sleep
- (transitive, intransitive) Of birds, to vocalise:
- (ornithology) To produce a 'song', for the purposes of defending a breeding territory or to attract a mate.
- (literary) To produce any type of melodious vocalisation.
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXI, page 36:
- 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.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 68:
- The evening was still very warm, and the birds in the woods were singing in praise of spring.
- (intransitive, slang) To confess under interrogation.
- (intransitive) To make a small, shrill sound.
- The air sings in passing through a crevice.
- a singing kettle
- 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book XXII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
- O'er his head the flying spear / Sang innocent, and spent its force in air.
- To relate in verse; to celebrate in poetry.
- 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 468:
- 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 uſeleſs Wealth, and Greatneſs unenjoy'd, […]
- 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:
- Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
- (intransitive) To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent.
- The sauce really makes this lamb sing.
- 2022 July 7, Sonia Fernandez, “‘Out of the Starting Gate’”, in The Current[2], University of California, Santa Barbara, archived from the original on 2022-07-07:
- [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. […] ”
- (ergative) To be capable of being sung; to produce a certain effect by being sung.
- 1875, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 118, page 685:
- 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.
- (Australia) In traditional Aboriginal culture, to direct a supernatural influence on (a person or thing), usually malign; to curse. [from 19th c.]
- 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 343:
- ‘We sung them two real good. We never give Louis Beck no place to find rest from his torment.’
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | (to) sing | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | sing | sang, sung* | |
2nd-person singular | sing, singest† | sang, sung*, sangest†, sungest† | |
3rd-person singular | sings, singeth† | sang, sung* | |
plural | sing | ||
subjunctive | sing | sang, sung* | |
imperative | sing | — | |
participles | singing | sung, sungen† |
Synonyms
[edit]- (confess under interrogation): See also Thesaurus:confess and Thesaurus:rat out
Derived terms
[edit]- all-singing all-dancing
- all-singing-and-dancing
- besing
- foresing
- go sing
- mis-sing
- New Guinea singing dog
- overtone singing
- part singing
- scat singing
- sight sing
- sing a different tune
- sing along, sing-along
- singer
- sing for one's supper
- sing from the same hymnal
- sing from the same hymnbook
- sing from the same hymn sheet
- singing
- singing chambermaid
- singing cowboy
- singing cowboy
- singing dog
- singing fish
- singing flame
- singing girl
- singing ground
- singing ground
- singing hinny
- singing sand
- singing saw
- singing telegram
- singing voice
- sing Kumbaya
- sing like a bird
- sing like a canary
- sing off the same hymn sheet
- sing out
- sing small
- singsong
- sing soprano
- sing the praises
- sing the praises of
- sing the same tune
- sing up
- throat singing
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
|
Noun
[edit]sing (plural sings)
- The act, or event, of singing songs.
- I sometimes have a quick sing in the shower.
- 1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 55:
- 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.
- 2002, Martha Mizell Puckett, Hoyle B. Puckett, Memories of a Georgia Teacher: Fifty Years in the Classroom, page 198:
- 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.
- 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 287:
- 'Ah, yes, Miss Fisher, have you had a nice sing?'
Derived terms
[edit]See also
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Afrikaans
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]sing (present sing, present participle singende, past participle gesing)
- to sing
Derived terms
[edit]- gesonge (verbal adjective)
German
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio: (file)
Verb
[edit]sing
Hungarian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from German. First attested in 1368.[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]sing (plural singek)
- (archaic) cubit (a unit of linear measure, no longer in use, originally equal to the length of the forearm)
Declension
[edit]Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | sing | singek |
accusative | singet | singeket |
dative | singnek | singeknek |
instrumental | singgel | singekkel |
causal-final | singért | singekért |
translative | singgé | singekké |
terminative | singig | singekig |
essive-formal | singként | singekként |
essive-modal | — | — |
inessive | singben | singekben |
superessive | singen | singeken |
adessive | singnél | singeknél |
illative | singbe | singekbe |
sublative | singre | singekre |
allative | singhez | singekhez |
elative | singből | singekből |
delative | singről | singekről |
ablative | singtől | singektől |
non-attributive possessive - singular |
singé | singeké |
non-attributive possessive - plural |
singéi | singekéi |
Possessive forms of sing | ||
---|---|---|
possessor | single possession | multiple possessions |
1st person sing. | singem | singjeim |
2nd person sing. | singed | singjeid |
3rd person sing. | singje | singjei |
1st person plural | singünk | singjeink |
2nd person plural | singetek | singjeitek |
3rd person plural | singjük | singjeik |
Derived terms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ sing in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, →ISBN. (See also its 2nd edition.)
Further reading
[edit]- sing in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
Iu Mien
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]sing
Maltese
[edit]Root |
---|
s-n-g |
2 terms |
Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]Zou
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Starr_070730-7818_Zingiber_officinale.jpg/220px-Starr_070730-7818_Zingiber_officinale.jpg)
From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thiiŋ, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kjaŋ. Cognates include Burmese ချင်း (hkyang:) and Chinese 薑/姜 (jiāng).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]síng
Etymology 2
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/1_%D0%94%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%96%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D1%81.%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8.jpg/220px-1_%D0%94%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%96%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D1%81.%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8.jpg)
From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thiŋ, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *siŋ. Cognates include Burmese သစ် (sac) and Chinese 薪 (xīn).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]síng
References
[edit]- Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 45
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sengʷʰ-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Entries with audio examples
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪŋ
- Rhymes:English/ɪŋ/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- en:Ornithology
- English literary terms
- English slang
- English ergative verbs
- Australian English
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English class 3 strong verbs
- English irregular verbs
- en:Music
- Afrikaans terms inherited from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms derived from Dutch
- Afrikaans terms with IPA pronunciation
- Afrikaans terms with audio links
- Afrikaans lemmas
- Afrikaans verbs
- German terms with audio links
- German non-lemma forms
- German verb forms
- Hungarian terms borrowed from German
- Hungarian terms derived from German
- Hungarian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Hungarian/iŋɡ
- Rhymes:Hungarian/iŋɡ/1 syllable
- Hungarian lemmas
- Hungarian nouns
- Hungarian terms with archaic senses
- hu:Units of measure
- Iu Mien terms borrowed from Chinese
- Iu Mien terms derived from Chinese
- Iu Mien lemmas
- Iu Mien nouns
- ium:Sound
- Maltese terms belonging to the root s-n-g
- Maltese terms borrowed from Sicilian
- Maltese terms derived from Sicilian
- Maltese 1-syllable words
- Maltese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Maltese lemmas
- Maltese nouns
- Maltese masculine nouns
- Zou terms inherited from Proto-Kuki-Chin
- Zou terms derived from Proto-Kuki-Chin
- Zou terms inherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan
- Zou terms derived from Proto-Sino-Tibetan
- Zou terms with IPA pronunciation
- Zou lemmas
- Zou nouns
- zom:Ginger family plants
- zom:Spices
- zom:Botany