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
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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:
There was a hush as she delivered one of the most impressive performances of her short, but glittering, career so far.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 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
These scenes were the only time a hush fell over the entire auditorium, as if every member of the audience was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
The fans faintly begin chanting his name, then their voices disappear into a hush.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
Not even when my mom tries to wrap her arms around me to hug me, hush me, calm me down.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
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
KAWAGOE, Japan — Now these hushed Olympics had found their way to the most melancholy of the hushes.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 29, 2021
Blunt even hushes the children with a lullaby, as Andrews did before.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 14, 2018
It is a happy thing that time quells the longings of vengeance and hushes the promptings of rage and aversion.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
But less than five years later, as final seconds ticked away on a 41-27 loss to Oregon on Saturday, fans trudged toward the exits, and that very same stadium sat in hushed disbelief.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Nasa is flying the X-59 in conjunction with community surveys to assess what people think when a supersonic boom is bent by the planes stretched nose and hushed up.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
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
The walls carry bottles, cans, jars, and echo hushed conversation.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
After a little while, people walked on to the stage and the room hushed.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
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
He hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning of a 5-0 win and then put his finger to his lips in a hushing gesture as he rounded the bases.
From Seattle Times ● May 23, 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
I can hear the audience hushing one another, not wanting to miss anything.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
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.
