croon
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɹuːn/
ipa: /kɹun/
ipa: /krøn/
ipa: /krʏn/
rhymes: -uːn
Forms: form: croons
form: crooning
form: crooned
form: crooned
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: croon
form: croon
form: crooned
form: croon
form: croonest
form: crooned
form: croonedst
form: croons
form: crooneth
form: crooned
form: croon
form: crooned
form: croon
form: crooned
form: croon
form: -
form: crooning
form: crooned
Etymology: The verb is borrowed from Scots croon (“to utter a deep, long-drawn-out sound; to utter a lament, mourn; to sing in a wailing voice, whimper, whine; to mutter or sing in an undertone, hum”) [and other forms], from Middle English cronen (“to sing or speak softly, hum, croon”) (croyn (Scotland)) [and other forms], probably from Middle Dutch crônen, krônen (“to groan, moan; to lament”) (modern Dutch kreunen (“to moan”)), or Old High German chrônan, krônen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), probably from Proto-Germanic *kraunijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerH- (“to cry hoarsely”).
The noun is partly:
* borrowed from Scots croon (“a lament, wail; mournful song; low murmuring tune; (obsolete) long-drawn-out sound”), from croon (verb): see above; and
* derived from the verb.
Cognates
* Middle Dutch krônen (modern Dutch kreunen (“to groan, moan; to lament”))
* Middle Low German kroenen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), kronen (“to growl; to grumble; to scold”)
* Old High German chrônan, chrônnan (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”)
* Saterland Frisian krȫnen (“to cause to weep”)
Senses: examples: text: He was crooning a song.
text: Tam ſkelpit on thro' dub and mire, / Deſpiſing vvind, and rain, and fire; / VVhiles holding faſt his gude blue bonnet; / VVhiles crooning o'er ſome auld Scots ſonnet; […]
ref: 1790 (date written; published 1791), Robert Burns, “Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale.”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 200:
text: So they went, toiling up [the staircase]; she singing all the way, and Paul sometimes crooning out a feeble accompaniment.
ref: 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Paul's Further Progress, Growth, and Character”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 69:
text: [A]ny other woman would have been melted to marrow at hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise.
ref: 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IX, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 249:
text: Thou croonest thy wild death-song o'er the world; / Serene Futurity thou dost conceal; / Thy banner is the shroud, the pall unfurled / Above mankind; […]
ref: 1856, Thomas L[ake] Harris, “Part Three”, in A Lyric of the Golden Age, New York, N.Y.: Partridge and Brittan, […], →OCLC, page 223:
text: By the light of the silvery moon, / I want to spoon, / To my honey I'll croon love's tune, […]
ref: 1909, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”, Ed[ward] Madden (lyrics), Gus Edwards (music), New York, N.Y.: Gus Edwards Music Pub Co, →OCLC, pages 4–5:
coordinate_terms: word: bawl
word: holler
word: howl
word: hum
word: mouthe
word: murmur
word: speak
word: shout
word: talk
word: whisper
word: whistle
glosses: To hum or sing (a song or tune), or to speak (words), softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing (a popular song) in a low, mellow voice.
examples: text: [I]n his ill-remembered prayer, and in the fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep, there breathed as true a spirit as ever studied homily expressed, or old cathedral arches echoed.
ref: 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 73.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 364:
text: “But, you know, crooners gonna croon.”
ref: 2021 September 16, Sarah Naftalis, “The Casino” (8:14 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 3, episode 1, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):
glosses: To soothe (a person or an animal) by singing softly.
examples: text: She was crooning, but I couldn’t make out what the song was.
text: But hark! the robin takes up the strain. […] Thou art a type of the true poet, even of him who "crooneth to himsel" amid poverty, and want, and toil. Other birds require the sunshine and the flower to wake their musical utterances, but the drifting flake and the arrowy hail stay not thy song.
ref: 1856, Hugh M‘Donald, “No. XX.—Kirkintilloch and Campsie.”, in Rambles round Glasgow, Descriptive, Historical, and Traditional, 2nd edition, Glasgow: Thomas Murray and Son, →OCLC, page 390:
text: "You, my sweet boy," she croons. "How much you still owe me?" […] "Be happy I ain't charging interest like how the man and all his bug-a-boos do," she croons on. "Just gimme a twenty. You got a dub or not?"
ref: 2006, Bayo Ojikutu, Free Burning […], New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 306:
synonyms: coo
glosses: To hum or sing, or to speak, softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing a popular song in a low, mellow voice.
glosses: To lament, to moan.
examples: text: Novv Clinkumbell, vvi' rattlin tovv, / Begins to jovv an' croon; […]
ref: 1786, Robert Burns, “The Holy Fair”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza XXVI, page 51:
text: Even the dull cattle crooned and gazed, / And murmured and looked with anxious pain / For something the mystery to explain.
ref: 1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the Second. Kilmeny. The Thirteenth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 192:
text: 'Thou hear'st that lordly Bull of mine, / Neighbour,' quoth Brunskill then; / 'How loudly to the hills he crunes, / That crune to him again.[']
ref: 1838, Robert Southey, “Brough Bells”, in The Poetical Works of Robert Southey. […], volume VI, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], published 1838, →OCLC, page 227:
text: Above the marge of night a star still shines, / And on the frosty hills the sombre pines / Harbor an eerie wind that crooneth low / Over the glimmering wastes of virgin snow.
ref: 1916, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “[Songs of the Hills and Woods.] A Winter Dawn.”, in The Watchman and Other Poems, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 85:
coordinate_terms: bawl#Verb
glosses: To make a continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle; to bellow, to low.
glosses: Of a large bell: to make a low-pitched sound.
Derived terms: word: crooner
word: crooning
word: crooningly