sing
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
Etymology: From Middle English singen, from Old English singan (“to sing”), from Proto-West Germanic *singwan, from Proto-Germanic *singwaną (“to sing”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to recite, sing”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian sjunge (“to sing”), West Frisian sjonge (“to sing”), Dutch zingen (“to sing”), German Low German singen (“to sing”), German singen (“to sing”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synge (“to sing”), Swedish sjunga (“to sing”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Faroese, and Icelandic syngja (“to sing”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”).
Inflected forms:
form: sings
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: singing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: sang
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sungen
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: sing
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: sing
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: sang
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
first-person
past
singular
form: sing
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: singest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: sang
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
past
second-person
singular
form: sangest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: sungest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: sings
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: singeth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: sang
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
past
singular
third-person
form: sing
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: sang
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
past
plural
form: sing
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: sang
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: dialectal
past
subjunctive
form: sing
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: singing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: sung
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sungen
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: sings
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: "I really want to sing in the school choir," said Vera.
And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders, and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
gloss: To perform a vocal part in a musical composition, regardless of technique.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To soothe with singing.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to sing somebody to sleep
gloss: Of birds, to vocalise:
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
gloss: Of birds, to vocalise:
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
literary
examples: ⁠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.
gloss: To rejoice
pos: verb
examples: My heart was singing.
gloss: To confess under interrogation.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
slang
gloss: To make a small, shrill sound.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To relate in verse; to celebrate in poetry; to praise.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: Who would not ſing for Lycidas? he knew / Himſelf to ſing, and build the lofty rhyme.
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, […]
If chocolate is America’s most magnificent culinary obsession — and it seems to be, what with best-selling books either admitting the chocolatoholic tendencies of the author or singing the joys of the stuff — then Valentine’s Day has got to be the chocolate lover’s holiday.
gloss: To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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. […]”
gloss: To be capable of being sung; to produce a certain effect by being sung.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: 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.
gloss: In traditional Aboriginal culture, to direct a supernatural influence on (a person or thing), usually malign; to curse.
pos: verb
tags: Australia
examples: ‘He says the Walcott Inlet men have sung him, and this tribe will meet the Walcott men and fight when the big walk-about comes, after the peanut season.’
‘We sung them two real good. We never give Louis Beck no place to find rest from his torment.’
gloss: To yell or shout.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
slang
examples: 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.
gloss: The act, or event, of singing songs.
pos: noun
examples: I sometimes have a quick sing in the shower.
Then all three would go off in search of the first, give it a good talking to and maybe a bit of a sing as well.
Some of the young folks asked Mrs. Long could they have a sing at her home that Sunday afternoon; she readily agreed, telling them to come early, bring their songbooks, and have a good sing.
'Ah, yes, Miss Fisher, have you had a nice sing?'
gloss: Any sound likened to human singing.
pos: noun
examples: heard the unmistakable twang of bowstrings against bracers, the sing of a long-bow volley, and made for the door
the sing of axe on concrete
Archie and Clem know gunshots when they hear them and the sing of a bullet as it drills the windshield and exits the back glass of the truck.
Synonyms: sing
Antonyms: lip-sync
lip sync
mime
mouth
Related words: song
jook-sing
singe
sing-sing
Derived words: all-singing all-dancing
all-singing-and-dancing
besing
countersing
foresing
forsing
go sing
mis-sing
New Guinea singing dog
outsing
oversing
overtone singing
part singing
resing
scat singing
sight sing
singability
singable
sing a different tune
singalong
sing along
sing-along
singback
singer
sing for one's supper
sing from the same hymnal
sing from the same hymnbook
sing from the same hymn sheet
singing
singing chambermaid
singing cowboy
singing dog
singing fish
singing flame
singing girl
singing ground
singing hinny
singing sand
singing saw
singing soprano
singing telegram
singing voice
sing Kumbaya
sing like a bird
sing like a canary
sing off the same hymn sheet
sing out
sing small
sing soprano
singspiration
singster
sing the praises
sing the praises of
sing the same tune
sing up
throat singing
undersing
unsing
singsong
filksing
sing-in
singjay
sing-off
Translations: