chirr

American  

[chur] / tʃɜr /

Or chirre,

verb (used without object)

1. to make a characteristic shrill, trilling sound, as a grasshopper.

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noun

1. the sound of chirring.

chirr British  

/ tʃɜː /

verb

1. (intr) (esp of certain insects, such as crickets) to make a shrill trilled sound

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noun

1. the sound of chirring

Etymology

Origin of chirr

First recorded in 1590–1600; alteration of chirp

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chirr

A pensive stillness passed while they listened to the hushed chirr of insects in the trees that surrounded the cemetery like an embrace.

From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner

It was a hot humid night, with the chirr of queer insects outside mocking with weary iteration the lusty snores of the weary farm hands.

From Blacksheep! Blacksheep! by Meredith Nicholson

The crickets' chirr 'neath brier and burr, By leaf-strewn pools and streams, When Autumn stands 'mid the dropping nuts, With the book, she shuts, Of dreams.

From The Garden of Dreams by Madison J. Cawein

I heard the death-moth tick and stir, Slow-honeycombing through the bark; I heard the cricket's drowsy chirr, And one lone beetle burr the dark— The sleeping woodland seemed to purr.

From Poems by Madison Julius Cawein

Now an uneasy head is thrust out, and now a whole tiny body, but it soon reënters in another quarter, and at length the stir and chirr grow still.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 92, June, 1865 by Various

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Related Words

• groan
• screech
• squeak

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