hiss

noun

1. 1

   A sibilant sound, such as that made by a snake or escaping steam; an unvoiced fricative.

   Their music frightful as the serpent’s hiss, And boding screech-owls make the concert full!

   […] over head the dismal hiss Of fiery Darts in flaming volies flew,

   A hundred Reeds, of a prodigious Growth, Scarce made a Pipe, proportion’d to his Mouth: Which, when he gave it Wind, the Rocks around, And watry Plains, the dreadful Hiss resound.

   […] his form was soon covered over by the twilight as his footsteps mixed in with the low hiss of the leafy trees.

2. 2

   An expression of disapproval made using such a sound.

   […] in open disputations ye haue bene openly conuict, ye haue bene openly driuen out of the schole with hisses […]

   1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder, 16 April, 1716, London: D. Midwinter and J. Tonson, pp. 203-204, The Actors, in the midst of an innocent old Play, are often startled with unexpected Claps or Hisses; and do not know whether they have been talking like good Subjects, or have spoken Treason.

   Once or twice she was encored five and six times in succession, and received with hisses when she appeared, and discharged with hisses and laughter when she had finished—then instantly encored and insulted again!

   Like a moustachioed pantomime villain relishing boos and hisses from the audience, Trump is oblivious to warnings and protestations from the sane world and simply contemptuous of the lickspittle mob desperately hoping to go unnoticed.

verb

1. 1

   To make a hiss, a sibilant sound of air escaping.

   As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.

   The poor cat hissed as it backed away from the approaching man.

   And in his wound the seared blood did make a gréeuous sound, As when a peece of stéele red who tane vp with tongs is drownd In water by the smith, it spirts and hisseth in the trowgh.

   The man came back, and said something in a lower voice, to which the other replied, “she sleeps,” or Ellena was deceived by the hissing consonants of some other words.

2. 2

   To call someone by hissing.

   I stepped out of my tent in Marrakech one night to get a bar of candy and caught your dose of clap when that Wac I never even saw before hissed me into the bushes.

3. 3

   To condemn or express contempt (for someone or something) by hissing.

   The crowd booed and hissed her off the stage.

   If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.

   The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee […]

   VVherefore this Religious affection vvhich nature has implanted, and as ſtrongly rooted in Man as the feare of death or the love of vvomen, vvould be the moſt enormous ſlip or bungle ſhe could commit, ſo that ſhe vvould ſo ſhamefully faile in the laſt Act, in this contrivance of the nature of Man, that inſtead of a Plaudite ſhe vvould deſerve to be hiſſed off the Stage.

4. 4

   To utter (something) with a hissing sound.

   Lies oft o’erthrown with ceaseless Venom spread, Still hiss out Scandal from their Hydra Head,

   the long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise […]

   2012, Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies, New York: Henry Holt, Part 2, “Master of Phantoms,” All day from the queen’s rooms, shouting, slamming doors, running feet: hissed conversations in undertones.

5. 5

   To move with a hissing sound.

   The arrow hissed through the air.

   The Troops of Troy recede with sudden Fear, While the swift Javelin hiss’d along in Air.

   All shod with steel We hissed along the polished ice […]

   All the preceding afternoon and night heavy thunderstorms had hissed down upon the meads, and washed some of the hay into the river […]

6. 6

   To emit or eject (something) with a hissing sound.

   The man in white pyjamas hissed soda into his glass.

   The radiator bubbled and hissed steam.

   He hissed air intently through a gap in his upper teeth.

7. 7

   To whisper, especially angrily or urgently.

   "Are you quite sure of it," she hissed into his ear, "Mr Fang, Junior?"

   "Oh please," she said, "don't let him see us!" I wouldn't let her push me away. "Stop!" she hissed. "He'll see us!"

Forms

plural

hisses

past tense

hissed

past participle

hissed

present participle

hissing

third person singular

hisses