hush
Americaninterjection
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
-
to make silent; silence.
-
to suppress mention of; keep concealed (often followed byup ).
They hushed up the scandal.
-
to calm, quiet, or allay.
to hush someone's fears.
noun
-
silence or quiet, especially after noise.
- Synonyms:
- tranquility, stillness, peace
-
Phonetics. either of the sibilant sounds (sh) and (zh).
adjective
verb
-
to make or become silent; quieten
-
to soothe or be soothed
noun
-
stillness; silence
-
an act of hushing
interjection
verb
-
to run water over the ground to erode (surface soil), revealing the underlying strata and any valuable minerals present
-
to wash (an ore) by removing particles of earth with rushing water
noun
Synonym Usage
See still 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hushsimple
-
hushessimple
-
have hushedperfect
-
has hushedperfect
-
am hushingprogressive
-
are hushingprogressive
-
is hushingprogressive
-
have been hushingperfect progressive
-
has been hushingperfect progressive
Past
-
hushedsimple
-
had hushedperfect
-
was hushingprogressive
-
were hushingprogressive
-
had been hushingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hush
1350–1400; apparently back formation from husht whist 2 ( Middle English huissht ), the -t being taken for past participle suffix
Explanation
To hush is to become quiet. When an audience is eager to hear a speaker, it will hush as soon as she begins to talk. Train passengers will usually hush their conversations when the conductor reminds them that they're in the quiet car, and one of a kindergarten teacher's skills is getting his class to hush. In fact, to quiet another person or group of people is also to hush: "The principal impatiently hushes the students as soon as they start giggling." A peaceful silence is another kind of hush. In Middle English, it was the imitative huisht.
Vocabulary lists containing hush
Selection Vocabulary 3, Unit 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One moment the music envelops us in a mysterious hush and then it is downright jaunty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
The big band music stopped, and for a few seconds a hush fell over the guests.
From Barron's ● Apr. 26, 2026
It’s easy to picture the fantasy kitchen: matching sets, gleaming gadgets, drawers that close with a soft, expensive hush.
From Salon ● Apr. 21, 2026
The fans faintly begin chanting his name, then their voices disappear into a hush.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
The baby, who had slept through all the clamour, woke up now in the sudden hush and began squalling.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
“Very sad. Absolutely,” says Winkler, in a quiet voice that hushes his “Barry” cast mates.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2023
They’re practicing “the mirror,” an improv exercise in a theater classroom, and the room suddenly hushes.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 10, 2023
The Lake Shore Limited hushes through the early-morning darkness, following the same route as that special train, back in 1948, whisking a raucous group of baseball men to Cleveland for celebrations and a parade.
From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2016
The first cadenza produced one of those you-could-hear-a-pin-drop hushes in the sold-out hall.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 29, 2016
I hear María coughing a little and Hilda laughing while Angela hushes her.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
In Ankara, Turkish riders on horseback flanked Trump's limousine as it drove through the hushed streets to the presidential palace where an honour guard in red and blue uniforms greeted him.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
“I feel like there’s an artist after me but there isn’t,” said Selines with a hushed giggle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
The walls carry bottles, cans, jars, and echo hushed conversation.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
You could only hear her offer a hushed “no” because the room had never been more silent.
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
The two stood side by side, the badger and the fox, the fox and the badger, hushed by the magnificence.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
“What I hope is we don’t go to what I would call diversity hushing, where people don’t want to talk about what they’re doing,” Tharp said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 16, 2024
Blanchett emphasizes Lydia’s acute sensitivity to sound, whether she’s hushing someone’s nervous physical tic or picking up on eerie disturbances in her apartment late at night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2022
They were capable of hushing all but the loudest noises on the NYC subway, but in my not-so-loud home environment, some distracting sounds still found their way to my ears.
From The Verge ● May 24, 2022
They have also taken to hushing nearby adults, so they can better hear their shows.
From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2021
I kept hushing them, and they finally sobered up when I reminded them we were not libre yet.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
