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”).
![]() |
|
Problems listening to this file? See media help. |
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.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., 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; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book XXII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], OCLC 670734254:
- 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 5634253, 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 606951673:
- (intransitive) To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent.
- The sauce really makes this lamb 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.
- 1875, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (volume 118, page 685)
- (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 2003, p. 343:
- ‘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 2003, p. 343:
Conjugation[edit]
infinitive | sing | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
present participle | singing | ||||||||||
past participle | sung | ||||||||||
simple | progressive | perfect | perfect progressive | ||||||||
present | I sing | we sing | I am singing | we are singing | I have sung | we have sung | I have been singing | we have been singing | |||
you sing | you sing | you are singing | you are singing | you have sung | you have sung | you have been singing | you have been singing | ||||
he sings | they sing | he is singing | they are singing | he has sung | they have sung | he has been singing | they have been singing | ||||
past | I sang | we sang | I was singing | we were singing | I had sung | we had sung | I had been singing | we had been singing | |||
you sang | you sang | you were singing | you were singing | you had sung | you had sung | you had been singing | you had been singing | ||||
he sang | they sang | he was singing | they were singing | he had sung | they had sung | he had been singing | they had been singing | ||||
future | I will sing | we will sing | I will be singing | we will be singing | I will have sung | we will have sung | I will have been singing | we will have been singing | |||
you will sing | you will sing | you will be singing | you will be singing | you will have sung | you will have sung | you will have been singing | you will have been singing | ||||
he will sing | they will sing | he will be singing | they will be singing | he will have sung | they will have sung | he will have been singing | they will have been singing | ||||
conditional | I would sing | we would sing | I would be singing | we would be singing | I would have sung | we would have sung | I would have been singing | we would have been singing | |||
you would sing | you would sing | you would be singing | you would be singing | you would have sung | you would have sung | you would have been singing | you would have been singing | ||||
he would sing | they would sing | he would be singing | they would be singing | he would have sung | they would have sung | he would have been singing | they would have been singing | ||||
imperative | sing |
Synonyms[edit]
- (confess under interrogation): See also Thesaurus:confess and Thesaurus:rat out
Derived terms[edit]
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’). 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]
From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thiiŋ, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *kjaŋ. Cognates include Burmese ချင်း (hkyang:) and Chinese 薑 (jiāng).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
síng
Etymology 2[edit]
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 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
- Iu Mien terms borrowed from Chinese
- Iu Mien terms derived from Chinese
- Iu Mien lemmas
- Iu Mien nouns
- 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