hush
Americaninterjection
verb (used without object)
-
hushes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hushed,
past participle, past
-
hushing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
hushes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hushed,
past participle, past
-
hushing
present participle
-
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
-
hushes
plural
-
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:
"It was a hush email," and "an effort to damage control," says one worker - while another says it made her "furious".
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
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
Only sound is crickets and peepers and the hush of warm summer wind.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
After the opening run of songs, she hushes the audience and spends two minutes looping her voice.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
“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
Blunt even hushes the children with a lullaby, as Andrews did before.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 14, 2018
Mami hushes him with her usual “No flies fly into a closed mouth, Mundo.”
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
In 1997, the nation's hearts went out to the two young boys, then aged 15 and 12, as they accompanied Diana's coffin through hushed London streets at her funeral.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
And nine out of ten times, she added in a hushed voice, “well, you know.”
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
The walls carry bottles, cans, jars, and echo hushed conversation.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
“You don’t do that,” he finally says, his voice hushed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
The library is filled with hushed sounds—clacking keyboards, turning pages, whispers.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
“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
For if Lydia is always performing, then she is also always conducting, ruthlessly directing, coordinating, manipulating and sometimes hushing the people in her life as if they were members of her own personal orchestra.
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
Instead of hushing that up or standing in judgment, why not analyze it, historically, with all the intellectual tools these Europeans didn’t have and voices they couldn’t hear?
From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2021
They headed for the park by the river, hushing their voices.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
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.
