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

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

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

Yo-Yo Ma closed his eyes as he drew a bow slowly across his cello, playing the first notes of the Catalan lullaby “The Song of the Birds.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

To reflect the 100-plus languages spoken in the Philippines, they selected a Hiligaynon lullaby called “Ili Ili Tulog Anay.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 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

The album’s second hit love song, “Baby, I Love Your Way,” is a rock lullaby.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026

Louder and louder I sang, and when my sisters shook the fogginess from their own minds, they sat up and joined me in the chorus of Mamá’s lullaby.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

He adds that the musical repertoire at Ravensbrück, a camp for women and girls, included several lullabies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026

The songs are roughly divided into two groups: uptempo party tunes and get-ready-for-bed lullabies; in addition to Legend’s originals, the album has covers of “You Are My Sunshine” and Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2024

They revered silence, considered birds their guardians and sang their babies lullabies: Utalá tapey-’é, uá utalá dioi — sleep little one, the sun has gone to sleep.

From New York Times ● Jan. 13, 2024

When Izzy recently decided to go back in the studio to record a new album, which includes some of the lullabies she plays, she wanted to invite Rupert too.

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2024

I imagined her singing lullabies to an audience of fawns and bluebirds.

From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day

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

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

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

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

In Raising Arizona she earned the usual critical raves as canny, resilient Ed McDonnough, lullabying her purloined baby to sleep with a grotesquely poignant backwoods ballad.

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