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:
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
Chants of "let's go Alexandra" frequently rang out, then hush descended when her American opponent sealed the match.
From Barron's ● Jan. 19, 2026
Mr. Pinkerton waved at the two of them to hush, and then he fixed his fierce eyes on me.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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
His mother, who initially hushes political discussions, emerges as a leader when she addresses a town assembly to point out that “we are Americans just like you.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 3, 2021
She turns around and hushes us all and stamps her foot until we’re quiet again.
From "Hurricane Child" by Kheryn Callender
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
These largely dull, pedestrian Rangers men playing in front of a mostly hushed and increasingly tired stadium with 15,000 empty seats.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
And nine out of ten times, she added in a hushed voice, “well, you know.”
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
That night, a million hushed “sorry!’s” could be heard throughout the auditorium as hordes of alternatively inclined women — because there were mostly women — flattened themselves to move through their row.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
I go upstairs, through the old building and its room full of lamp-lit tables and people softly turning pages or asking hushed research questions, reading glasses on noses.
From "Muffled" by Jennifer Gennari
The crowd could barely contain their elation, hushing briefly when Mitchell’s anchor vocals were unaccompanied, only to erupt again the second the rest of the choir rejoined her.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 11, 2023
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
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
These earbuds do a better job than the AirPods Pro and even slightly outperform Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds at hushing nearby noise.
From The Verge ● Jun. 8, 2021
But after a while, I’d get bored and wander to the back of the prayer hall and run around with the other kids while different ladies took turns hushing us.
From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan
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.
