WHISPER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Whisper

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/wˈɪspər/ /hwˈɪspər/ Listen

noun

Whisper n.

A low, soft, sibilant voice or utterance, which can be heard only by those near at hand; voice or utterance that employs only breath sound without tone, friction against the edges of the vocal cords and arytenoid cartilages taking the place of the vibration of the cords that produces tone; sometimes, in a limited sense, the sound produced by such friction as distinguished from breath sound made by friction against parts of the mouth. See Voice, n., 2. "The inward voice or whisper can not give a tone." "Soft whispers through the assembly went."

A cautious or timorous speech.

Something communicated in secret or by whispering; a suggestion or insinuation.

A low, sibilant sound. "The whispers of the leaves."

verb

Whisper v. t.

To utter in a low and nonvocal tone; to say under the breath; hence, to mention privately and confidentially, or in a whisper. "They might buzz and whisper it one to another."

To address in a whisper, or low voice. (Archaic) "And whisper one another in the ear." "Where gentlest breezes whisper souls distressed."

To prompt secretly or cautiously; to inform privately. (Obs.) "He came to whisper Wolsey."

Whisper v. i. (past & past part. whispered; pres. part. whispering)

To speak softly, or under the breath, so as to be heard only by one near at hand; to utter words without sonant breath; to talk without that vibration in the larynx which gives sonorous, or vocal, sound. See Whisper, n.

To make a low, sibilant sound or noise. "The hollow, whispering breeze."

To speak with suspicion, or timorous caution; to converse in whispers, as in secret plotting. "All that hate me whisper together against me."

See images of 'Whisper'

Etymology of 'Whisper'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Whisper" Quotes from Famous Books

... removing suspicion from the lugger among those on shore. It seemed so utterly improbable that a French corsair could answer the signals of an English frigate that even Vito Viti felt compelled to acknowledge to the vice-governatore in a whisper that, so far, the circumstance was much in favor of the lugger's loyalty. Then the calm exterior of Raoul counted for something, more especially as he remained apparently an unconcerned observer of the rapid approach ...

— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... indwelling power and support, which is perhaps their characteristic experience. "Blessed is that soul," says a Kempis, "that heareth the Lord speaking in him and taketh from His mouth the word of consolation. Blessed be those ears that receive of God's whisper and take no heed of the whisper of this world."[96] Though St. John of the Cross has reminded us with blunt candour that such persons are for the most part only talking to themselves, we need not deny the value of such a talking as a means of expressing the deeply known and ...

— The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day • Evelyn Underhill

... morning as the dawn came up. And now, indeed, the morning tide broke over the eastern bar, and was like a pale grey flood moving over level earth. Then she whinnied low as though she spoke to me in a whisper, and I saw one dark, moving shadow, and another, as she broke into a gallop. Oh, but out of seven alarmed shadows, fearful of work, I needed three, and neither Beeswing nor her rider could endure ...

— A Tramp's Notebook • Morley Roberts

... yet the Lights were set, A whisper in the void, Who shalt be sung through planets young ...

— The American Mind - The E. T. Earl Lectures • Bliss Perry

... and pray, till our teeth grind together. Oh, that from that spirit-world, so real and yet so silent, that surrounds us, one word would come to guide us! We are left alone with this devil; and God does not whisper to us. Suddenly we seize the Bible, turning it round and round, ...

— The Story of an African Farm • (AKA Ralph Iron) Olive Schreiner

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