lullaby

American  

[luhl-uh-bahy] / ˈlʌl əˌbaɪ /

noun

• lullabies
  plural

1. a song used to lull a child to sleep; cradlesong.

2. any lulling song.

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verb (used with object)

lullabied, lullabying

1. to lull with or as with a lullaby.

lullaby British  

/ ˈlʌləˌbaɪ /

noun

1. a quiet song to lull a child to sleep

2. the music for such a song

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verb

1. (tr) to quiet or soothe with or as if with a lullaby

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• lullabies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of lullaby

1550–60; equivalent to lulla, lulla ( y ), interjection used in cradlesongs ( late Middle English lullai, lulli ) + -by, as in bye-bye

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Explanation

If anyone has ever sung a song to you before bedtime, trying to lull you to sleep, you can call that song a lullaby. Lullabies are usually soft and soothing tunes — more like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" than AC/DC's "Back in Black." Many lullabies are folk tunes, and most of them are simple melodies with repetitive lyrics. You might be familiar with lullabies like "Hush, Little Baby," "Rockabye Baby," and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," all of which have been sung for generations to sleepy children by their parents, grandparents, and babysitters. The word lullaby comes from the Middle English lullen, "to lull or soothe," and bye, as in "bye bye."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lullaby lullabies lullabied lullabying

She also collaborated with Milo J on “Llora Llora” — a folksy lullaby off the Argentine rapper’s masterpiece “La Vida Era Más Corta.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

Say, for instance, a fluffy Sasquatch, or a crooner of a moon in pajamas singing an old-timey lullaby to all the little ones seated cross-legged on the floor.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026

Jepsen continued posting on Instagram about her maternity journey with fans, in January posting photos from the beach, from home and from fitting rooms as she spoke about finding a lullaby for her child-to-be.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026

We know of this lullaby because Liebeskind, who was later killed at Sachsenhausen, transmitted the song there to Alexander Kulisiewicz, a Polish musician and political prisoner who had an eidetic memory.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

Each telling was a lullaby of dreams we never wanted to wake from.

From "A Step from Heaven" by An Na

Forever spouting hilariously wrong theories about the Traitors, I started to feel bad for him when his teammates made fun of him as he sang backwards lullabies played by creepy dolls.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2025

Few artists can draw from both worlds, but they collided in her debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?—pillow-soft vocals and blown-out drums, singer-songwriter lullabies and sonic battering rams.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2025

Instead, the group work through a mix of lullabies, folk and gospel, switching from Spanish to Congolese to Swahili in rounds of four-part harmonies.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025

As children, we were sung lullabies, read bedtime stories.

From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2024

Children’s voices, after all, are their first instrument—a child’s first exceptionally pleasant musical experience is likely to be hearing lullabies from a parent or guardian, and then vocally experimenting with his or her own voice.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

Which leads to an obvious question: Are there bands that can’t be lullabied?

From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2017

The breeze lullabied the conker tree and the conker tree lullabied me.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

It is not often in life that one slips into dreamless slumber on soft grass, lullabied by the night-song of a south-wester in pine trees centuries old.

From With Botha in the Field by Eric Moore Ritchie

Into this they ran, and there they spent the night, serenaded by the roaring gale, and lullabied by the crash of falling spires and the groans of rending ice.

From The Giant of the North Pokings Round the Pole by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

The lullabying born-again crooner of the mid-2000s was initially far less interesting.

From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2015

Virginia Mayo was looking beautiful and Doris Day was lullabying.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 2, 2010

She hauls the lot of them into her bed and heart, lullabying away their fears and wringing tears from the audience.

From Time Magazine Archive

Meanwhile, platformed six feet above the orchestra, the Mothers were lullabying away at some of their "greatest hits," like Lumpy Gravy, Duke of Prunes and Who Needs the Peace Corps.

From Time Magazine Archive

We almost had Provincial Premiers lullabying to their Cabinets:   "Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye,   The Black Douglas shall not get ye."

From The Masques of Ottawa by Augustus Bridle

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