Meaning of Sing | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.
   intransitive
2. To perform a vocal part in a musical composition, regardless of technique.
   intransitive
3. To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization.
   transitive
4. To soothe with singing.
   transitive
5. Of birds, to vocalise:
   ambitransitive
6. To produce a 'song', for the purposes of defending a breeding territory or to attract a mate.
   ambitransitive
7. To produce any type of melodious vocalisation.
   ambitransitive, literary
8. To confess under interrogation.
   intransitive, slang
9. To make a small, shrill sound.
   intransitive
10. To relate in verse; to celebrate in poetry.
11. To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent.
    intransitive
12. To be capable of being sung; to produce a certain effect by being sung.
    ergative
13. In traditional Aboriginal culture, to direct a supernatural influence on (a person or thing), usually malign; to curse.
    Australia
14. To yell or shout.
    archaic, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“"I really want to sing in the school choir," said Vera.”

“sing a lullaby”

“In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.”

“to sing somebody to sleep”

“⁠I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing: And unto one her note is gay, ⁠For now her little ones have ranged; ⁠And unto one her note is changed, Because her brood is stol’n away.”

“The evening was still very warm, and the birds in the woods were singing in praise of spring.”

“The air sings in passing through a crevice.”

“a singing kettle”

“O'er his head the flying spear / Sang innocent, and spent its force in air.”

“Again I bid the mournful Goddeſs write / The fond Purſuit of fugitive Delight: / Bid her exalt her melancholy Wing, / And rais'd from Earth, and ſav'd from Paſſion, ſing / Of human Hope by croſs Event deſtroyed, / Of uſeleſs Wealth, and Greatneſs unenjoy'd, […]”

“Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.”

“The sauce really makes this lamb sing.”

“[Alissa Monte said] “This result was all about demonstrating that LZ [the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment] works, and it does! As we take more data and mature our analyses, we get to make LZ sing. […]””

“No song sings well unless it is open-vowelled, and has the rhythmic stress on the vowels. Tennyson's songs, for instance, are not generally adapted to music.”

“‘We sung them two real good. We never give Louis Beck no place to find rest from his torment.’”

“I took my flogging like a stone. If I had sung, some of the convicts would have given me some lush with a locust in it (laudanum hocussing), and when I was asleep would have given me a crack on the head that would have laid me straight.”

CEFR level