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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
whisper
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Chinese whispers
conspiratorial whisper/smile/wink etc
▪ Britta gave him a conspiratorial smile.
hoarse voice/whisper/groan etc
hushed tones/voice/whispers etc (=quiet speech)
▪ They spoke in hushed tones at the table.
say/whisper sth into sb's ear
▪ He whispered something into his wife's ear.
stage whisper
talk in a low voice/a whisper etc
▪ They were talking in low voices, and I couldn’t catch what they were saying.
whispering campaign
whispering sweet nothings
▪ a couple whispering sweet nothings to each other
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
urgently
▪ The boy is about to reach out for it when Dixie whispers urgently in his ear.
▪ She leaned across to two men on a neighbouring table and whispered urgently between their lowered heads.
■ NOUN
ear
▪ In Holly's ear Feldstein whispered of the circulation of the samizdat writings.
▪ I strained my eyes to see their faces, my ears to catch their whispered voices.
name
▪ She whispered his name over and over: Mr Sargent, Mr Sargent.
▪ She whispered her name to me.
voice
▪ A voice whispered that the work was nonsense, too far removed from the interests of the age to be of value.
▪ His voice was whispered, incredulous; something about the curious paths of his own life caused him endless surprise.
▪ When he had woken up that morning the voices were waiting, whispering out on the staircase.
▪ Arianna, a voice inside her whispered.
▪ Play him at his own game, a small voice whispered.
▪ A little voice inside her whispered that Luke had never intended his generous words to be taken literally.
▪ When they cut the engine, Tabitha could hear tiny voices whispering to them.
▪ He was right, a distant voice in her mind whispered mockingly.
word
▪ Some of the people whispered words in response to the priest's holy things.
▪ And never shall I forget those whispered words.
▪ For had not Caswell been beautiful - his full, sensuous lips, whispering honeyed words.
▪ Inna whispered secret words of comfort and hope into Rachel's ear.
▪ He displayed an ordinary military radio and whispered a few words and made their village disappear.
▪ Tallis dragged the animal down and soothed it, stroking its muzzle and whispering soft words.
▪ Anita said one more time, whispering the word like a prayer.
■ VERB
begin
▪ The lawyer believed his colleagues had begun to whisper about him behind his back.
▪ In utter confidence she begins to sweetly whisper her secrets to the writer, who listens, transfixed.
▪ Little Billy began to hear somebody whispering in his ear.
▪ He or she begins to whisper, and in the voice is hypnotism, liberation, energy, possibly even truth.
▪ Behind them, in the forest, a tiny wind began to whisper, and a faint awareness stirred the air.
▪ Yet it began to be whispered secretly that he was dying.
▪ She pulled Philippa aside and began to whisper to her.
hear
▪ I heard them whispering to the other sailors several times, but I did not suspect what they were planning.
▪ From her piggyback vantage point she heard dry reeds whisper and water splash.
▪ Beyond one open doorway Alan heard children whispering in the dark - many children.
▪ Test the hearing to whispered voice or watch ticking.
▪ She could hear them whispering in the passage.
▪ We entered the outskirts of Yaroslavl and I heard the others whispering to themselves.
▪ I heard him whispering to my master all evening, and I was sorry I had laughed at him.
▪ I hear a black boy whisper to the other.
leaned
▪ Then he leaned forward and whispered something into his left ear.
▪ One of his soldiers leaned forward and whispered to hirn; the Prime Minister shook his head.
▪ Magrat leaned over and whispered something in her husband's ear.
▪ The thin figure leaned over and whispered in the sleeper's ear.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ ""Don't wake the baby,'' whispered Jemima.
▪ Fran leant over and whispered something in her sister's ear.
▪ Those two always sit in the back of the room and whisper.
▪ We had to whisper because Jill's mother was in the next room.
▪ Why are you two whispering?
▪ You don't have to whisper - there's no one around.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ I whispered, quietly yet urgently, that there was a bear nearby.
▪ I heard them whispering to the other sailors several times, but I did not suspect what they were planning.
▪ Repeat, whispering up to eight in an even stream as you breathe out.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
conspiratorial
▪ He dropped to a conspiratorial stage whisper with Margaret: Where is she anyway?
loud
▪ When she started talking again her voice was not much louder than a whisper.
▪ No one dared to object to him directly about his dim light, though some people grumbled about it in loud whispers.
■ NOUN
stage
▪ He dropped to a conspiratorial stage whisper with Margaret: Where is she anyway?
■ VERB
ask
▪ I asked in a whisper, fearing suspicious spirits, listening gods, and Edna.
hear
▪ But Dai Huang was not around to hear their whispers.
▪ How many of you have been hearing whispers in your mind that you have been ignoring? ....
▪ I hear whispers, black boys.
▪ Alexei heard a whisper of sound at his back, but he did not turn.
▪ I believe I hear them laugh and whisper.
▪ And when I picked it up, I could only hear a whisper.
▪ Ask the students if they think they can hear a whisper from one end of the class to the other.
say
▪ But they say it in a whisper.
▪ Suffice it to say that the whisper eventually turned into a shout and the five-foot pile of dirt was reduced considerably.
▪ Regan, the chief stagehand, said in a harsh whisper.
speak
▪ But in between all these things something happens which is only spoken of in hushed whispers.
▪ He could not speak above a whisper.
▪ Dexter eased himself across the room and spoke in a whisper.
▪ They spoke among themselves in whispers, which fell off into sibilant monosyllables, and then into nothing at all.
▪ Both spoke to each other in whispers.
▪ They clung to each other, speaking in desperate whispers, sharing the shock and terror of a recently confirmed test result.
talk
▪ But when the moment came, when he heard her, talking in a fear-ridden whisper, it wrenched at him.
▪ They talk and laugh in whispers, their gestures efficient and contained.
▪ Tashie had made everyone take off their shoes and promise not to talk or even whisper.
▪ After he went to sleep, she and I talked in whispers.
▪ Islington's brave battler can still barely talk above a whisper.
▪ They were talking in whispers, laughing.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Both spoke to each other in whispers.
▪ But Dai Huang was not around to hear their whispers.
▪ Control over the full range from thunderous chords to glittering passage work to a mere whisper of a pianissimo was total.
▪ His words ended in a harsh whisper.
▪ The driver conferred in hurried whispers with the men, and we climbed in quickly.
▪ Throughout presidential history, there have been whispers.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Whisper

Whisper \Whis"per\, v. t.

  1. To utter in a low and nonvocal tone; to say under the breath; hence, to mention privately and confidentially, or in a whisper.

    They might buzz and whisper it one to another.
    --Bentley.

  2. To address in a whisper, or low voice. [Archaic]

    And whisper one another in the ear.
    --Shak.

    Where gentlest breezes whisper souls distressed.
    --Keble.

  3. To prompt secretly or cautiously; to inform privately. [Obs.] ``He came to whisper Wolsey.''
    --Shak.

Whisper

Whisper \Whis"per\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Whispered; p. pr. & vb. n. Whispering.] [AS. hwisprian; akin to G. wispern, wispeln, OHG. hwispal?n, Icel. hv[=i]skra, Sw. hviska, Dan. hviske; of imitative origin. Cf. Whistle.]

  1. To speak softly, or under the breath, so as to be heard only by one near at hand; to utter words without sonant breath; to talk without that vibration in the larynx which gives sonorous, or vocal, sound. See Whisper, n.

  2. To make a low, sibilant sound or noise.

    The hollow, whispering breeze.
    --Thomson.

  3. To speak with suspicion, or timorous caution; to converse in whispers, as in secret plotting.

    All that hate me whisper together against me.
    --Ps. xli. 7.

Whisper

Whisper \Whis"per\, n.

  1. A low, soft, sibilant voice or utterance, which can be heard only by those near at hand; voice or utterance that employs only breath sound without tone, friction against the edges of the vocal cords and arytenoid cartilages taking the place of the vibration of the cords that produces tone; sometimes, in a limited sense, the sound produced by such friction as distinguished from breath sound made by friction against parts of the mouth. See Voice, n., 2, and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect][sect] 5, 153, 154.

    The inward voice or whisper can not give a tone.
    --Bacon.

    Soft whispers through the assembly went.
    --Dryden.

  2. A cautious or timorous speech.
    --South.

  3. Something communicated in secret or by whispering; a suggestion or insinuation.

  4. A low, sibilant sound. ``The whispers of the leaves.''
    --Tennyson.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
whisper

Old English hwisprian "speak very softly, murmur" (only in a Northumbrian gloss for Latin murmurare), from Proto-Germanic *hwis- (cognates: Middle Dutch wispelen, Old High German hwispalon, German wispeln, wispern, Old Norse hviskra "to whisper"), from PIE *kwei- "to hiss, whistle," imitative. Transitive sense is from 1560s. Related: Whispered; whispering. An alternative verb, now obsolete, was whister (late 14c., from Old English hwæstrian), and Middle English had whistringe grucchere "a slanderer."

whisper

1590s, from whisper (v.).

Wiktionary
whisper

n. 1 The act of speaking in a quiet voice, especially, without vibration of the vocal cords. 2 (context usually in plural English) A rumor. 3 (context figurative English) A faint trace or hint (of something). 4 (context internet English) A private message to an individual in a chat room. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To speak softly, or under the breath, so as to be heard only by one near at hand; to utter words without sonant breath; to talk without that vibration in the larynx which gives sonorous, or vocal, sound. 2 (context transitive English) To mention privately and confidentially, or in a whisper. 3 (context intransitive English) To make a low, sibilant sound. 4 (context intransitive English) To speak with suspicion or timorous caution; to converse in whispers, as in secret plotting. 5 (context transitive obsolete English) To address in a whisper, or low voice. 6 (context transitive obsolete English) To prompt secretly or cautiously; to inform privately.

WordNet
whisper
  1. n. speaking softly without vibration of the vocal cords [syn: whispering, susurration]

  2. the light noise like the noise of silk clothing or leaves blowing in the wind [syn: rustle, rustling, whispering]

  3. v. speak softly; in a low voice [ant: shout]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Whisper (disambiguation)

A whisper is a sound produced by whispering.

Whisper or Whispers may refer to:

Whisper (film)

Whisper is a 2007 horror film directed by Stewart Hendler and written by Christopher Borrelli. The film revolves around the kidnapping of a young boy, David, who is more than he appears and brings unexpected troubles for his kidnappers.

Whisper (Transformers)

Whisper is the name of several fictional characters in the various Transformers universes.

Whisper (song)

"Whisper" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Lacy J. Dalton. it was released in April 1981 as the third single from the album Hard Times. The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The song was written by Dalton and Mark Sherrill.

Whisper (app)

Whisper is a proprietary iOS and Android mobile app available without charge, which says that it allows users to send messages anonymously, and to receive replies. Users post messages, known as "whispers," which are displayed as text superimposed over an image automatically retrieved from Whisper's own search engine or uploaded by the user. The app was launched in March 2012 under the original name WhisperText by CEO Michael Heyward and Brad Brooks, who is the CEO of mobile messaging service TigerText. In April 2016, it was reported that Whisper had reached 30 million monthly active users.

Whisper (cartridge family)

The Whisper family of firearm cartridges is a group of wildcat cartridges developed in the early 1990s by J.D. Jones of SSK Industries. The Whisper Family was developed as a line of accurate, multi-purpose cartridges using relatively heavy rifle bullets for a given caliber in subsonic loads. The intention was to create an extremely accurate cartridge family for military, police, competition and specialized hunting markets that could also be easily sound suppressed.

While all cartridges in the Whisper family must be capable of accuracy using subsonic loads, most of the smaller caliber cartridges of the family (.308" and under) are also capable of being loaded to supersonic velocities using relatively lightweight bullets for their caliber, increasing their utility.

Usage examples of "whisper".

The three members of the agronomic team were there, sitting near Cathartes on the floor, whispering among themselves.

Theodore whispered, and then he stepped on the gas and the ambulance lurched forward.

Tom remembered that he and Cathy had agreed in a whisper that Walter had this slightly annoying body language, as if he were conferring some kind of favour and wished the whole thing could be dealt with as quickly as possible.

The registrar whispered that he was lecturing on end-to-end anastomosis and then sat back, his arms folded across his chest, the picture of attention.

It had even been whispered at the time, among the adepts that the Count was the resurrection of Balsamo, better known as Cagliostro.

Not for naught had he gained access into darksome cults, had barkened to the grisly whispers of the votaries of Skelos under midnight trees, and read the forbidden iron-bound books of Vathelos the Blind.

And whispers, such as, Blimey, where did she come from, not off a Billingsgate fish barrer, I bet.

He had seen the city before, had battled on this very plain, but he had never heard the wind whisper through the valley as it did today, and the sound startled him.

When they had gone the Beduin leaned low over Stimbol, and whispered in his ear.

Whilst he was still contemplating, and wondering how Bellamy of all people in the world had managed to marry such a woman, and what previous acquaintance George had had with her, he saw the lady whisper something to his cousin, who at once turned and introduced him.

Lady Bellamy, robed as an Egyptian sorceress, and holding a letter in her hand, which she offered to Angela, whispering in her ear.

Lady Bellamy saw that if something were not done quickly, there would be a shocking scene, which was the last thing she wanted, so she seized George and whispered in his ear, after which he followed her sulkily, turning round from time to time to look at Angela.

Years ago, in the time of Guzman Bento, he had been mixed up, it was whispered, in a conspiracy which was betrayed and, as people expressed it, drowned in blood.

Besides, since he had become again of some account, vague whispers had been heard that years ago, when fallen into disgrace and thrown into prison by Guzman Bento at the time of the so-called Great Conspiracy, he had betrayed some of his best friends amongst the conspirators.

At a whispered order from Dwaen, Rhodry stuck close to Lord Beryn, who barely seemed to notice he was there.