sing

(sĭng)

v. sang (săng) or sung (sŭng), sung, sing·ing, sings

v.intr.

1. Music

a. To utter a series of words or sounds in musical tones.

b. To vocalize songs or selections.

c. To perform songs or selections as a trained or professional singer.

d. To produce sounds when played: made the violin sing.

a. To make melodious sounds: birds singing outside the window.

b. To give or have the effect of melody; lilt.

3. To make a high whining, humming, or whistling sound.

4. To be filled with a buzzing or ringing sound.

a. To proclaim or extol something in verse.

b. To write poetry.

6. Slang To give information or evidence against someone.

v.tr.

1. Music

a. To produce the musical sound of: sang a love song.

b. To utter with musical inflections: She sang the message.

c. To bring to a specified state by singing: sang the baby to sleep.

2. To intone or chant (parts of the Mass, for example).

3. To proclaim or extol, especially in verse: sang his praises.

n. Music

A gathering of people for group singing.

Phrasal Verb:

sing out

To call out loudly.

[Middle English singen, from Old English singan; see seng^wh- in Indo-European roots.]

sing′a·ble adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Singing

See Also: MUSIC

As anxious about his voice as a Don Juan about his sexual equipment: a roughness was the equivalent of a dose of clap, laryngitis of impotence —Francis King
See Also: ANXIETY
Carry a tune as well as a mouse carries an elephant —Anon
His care for his voice was like that of a parent for a sickly and therefore abnormally cherished child —Francis King
Melody … sweetened the air like raindrops —Paul Theroux
Most of them [sopranos] sound like they live on seaweed —Sir Thomas Beecham
Sang in a drone like a far-away tractor —Mary Ward Brown
Sang without passion, like a conscientious schoolgirl —Antonia White
Singing is as natural and common to all men as it is to speak high when they threaten in anger, or to speak low when they are dejected —William Law
Singing voice … like a bee in a bottle, a melodious slightly adenoidal whine, wavering, full of sobs and breaks, and of a pitch like a boy’s before the change of voice —William Humphrey
See Also: VOICE(S)
Sing like a lark —William Makepeace Thackeray
Sings as sweetly as a nightingale —William Shakespeare
Song … old as air, and dark as doom —Mark Van Doren
Sopranos trilling loudly as if terrorized —Harvey Swados
(I tried to sing along but) the notes themselves kept sliding away from me like water drops dancing across a hot skillet —A. E. Maxwell
See Also: ELUSIVENESS
[A whistled] tune … seemed to be pouring out of him as though he were a bird —James Baldwin
Tune … that climbed and plummeted like a kite in the wind —Lynne Sharon Schwartz

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	singing - the act of singing vocal music vocalizing musical performance - the act of performing music eisteddfod - any of several annual Welsh festivals involving artistic competitions (especially in singing) music - musical activity (singing or whistling etc.); "his music was his central interest" vocal music - music that is vocalized (as contrasted with instrumental music) a capella singing, a cappella singing - singing without instrumental accompaniment bel canto - a style of operatic singing coloratura - singing with florid ornamentation caroling - singing joyful religious songs (especially at Christmas) crooning - the act of singing popular songs in a sentimental manner crooning - singing in a soft low tone; "her crooning soon put the child to sleep" scat, scat singing - singing jazz; the singer substitutes nonsense syllables for the words of the song and tries to sound like a musical instrument harmonisation, harmonization - singing in harmony humming - the act of singing with closed lips chanting, intonation - the act of singing in a monotonous tone intonation - singing by a soloist of the opening piece of plainsong karaoke - singing popular songs accompanied by a recording of an orchestra (usually in bars or nightclubs) part-singing - singing with three or more voice parts hymnody, psalmody - the act of singing psalms or hymns singalong, singsong - informal group singing of popular songs solfege, solfeggio - a voice exercise; singing scales or runs to the same syllable solfege, solfeggio, solmization - singing using solfa syllables to denote the notes of the scale of C major yodeling - singing by changing back and forth between the chest voice and a falsetto Greek chorus, chorus - a company of actors who comment (by speaking or singing in unison) on the action in a classical Greek play private instructor, tutor, coach - a person who gives private instruction (as in singing, acting, etc.)
	2.	singing - disclosing information or giving evidence about another tattle, telling disclosure, revealing, revelation - the speech act of making something evident
Adj.	1.	singing - smooth and flowing cantabile music - an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner melodic, melodious, musical - containing or constituting or characterized by pleasing melody; "the melodious song of a meadowlark"

Translations

غِناءغِنَاء

zpěv

sang

Singen Gesang Gesangs-...

τραγούδι

canto cantar

laulaminen

chant chanteur

pjevanje

éneklés

söngur

canto canterino

歌うこと

노래

petje

sång

การร้องเพลง

şarkı söyleme

việc ca hát

唱歌演唱

singing

[ˈsɪŋɪŋ]

A. N

1. (= act of singing) → canto m
she is studying singing → estudia canto
the singing stopped → dejaron de cantar
his singing was atrocious → cantaba pésimamente, cantaba fatal
they stood for the singing of the Internationale → se pusieron de pie para cantar la Internacional

2. [of kettle] → silbido m; (in ears) → zumbido m

B. CPD singing lesson N → lección f de canto
singing teacher N → profesor(a) m/f de canto
singing telegram N → telegrama m cantado
singing voice N to have a good singing voice → tener una buena voz para cantar

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

singing

[ˈsɪŋɪŋ]

[person, bird] → chant m
The dancing and singing ended at midnight → Les danses et les chants se terminèrent à minuit.

[kettle] → sifflement m

modif [career] → de chanteur/euse; [competition, lesson, teacher] → de chant
singing voice
She has a lovely singing voice → Elle a une jolie voix.

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

singing

n → Singen nt; (of person, bird also) → Gesang m; (in the ears) → Dröhnen nt; (of kettle) → Summen nt; he teaches singing → er gibt Sing- or Gesangstunden, er gibt Singen (inf); do you like my singing? → gefällt dir, wie ich singe?, gefällt dir mein Gesang?

singing

singing lesson

n → Gesangstunde f

singing telegram

n durch eine Agentur persönlich übermittelter, in Gesangsform vorgetragener Geburtstagsgruß etc

singing voice

n → Singstimme f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

singing

[ˈsɪŋɪŋ]

1. n (of person, bird) → canto; (of kettle, bullet, in ears) → fischio

2. adj (lessons, teacher) → di canto

sing

(siŋ) – past tense sang (saŋ) : past participle sung (saŋ) – verb

to make (musical sounds) with one's voice. He sings very well; She sang a Scottish song; I could hear the birds singing in the trees.

ˈsinger noun

a person who sings, eg as a profession. Are you a good singer?; He's a trained singer.

ˈsinging noun

the art or activity of making musical sounds with one's voice. Do you do much singing nowadays?; (also adjective) a singing lesson/teacher.

sing out

to shout or call out. Sing out when you're ready to go.

Singing

→ غِنَاء zpěv sang Singen τραγούδι canto laulaminen chant pjevanje canto 歌うこと 노래 zingen sang śpiew canto пение sång การร้องเพลง şarkı söyleme việc ca hát 唱歌

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

I have permission to carry the scraps over from the Court meals to my poor sick mother, and when I am going home at night, tired and weary, and rest for a little in the wood, then I hear the Nightingale singing! It brings tears to my eyes, and I feel as if my mother were kissing me!'

But one evening, when the artificial bird was singing its best, and the Emperor lay in bed listening to it, something in the bird went crack.

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He was singing in passionate tones, gazing with gazing with his sparkling black-agate eyes at the frightened and happy Natasha.

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All the car was singing a score of songs at once, and Bert, his head pillowed on Mary's breast with her arms around him, started "On the Banks of the Wabash." And he sang the song through, undeterred by the bedlam of two general fights, one on the adjacent platform, the other at the opposite end of the car, both of which were finally subdued by special policemen to the screams of women and the crash of glass.

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When Harris is at a party, and is asked to sing, he replies: "Well, I can only sing a COMIC song, you know;" and he says it in a tone that implies that his singing of THAT, however, is a thing that you ought to hear once, and then die.

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On another day she repeated this, at the same time singing most of the song to him softly in his ear.

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She was enchanted by her talent, and her voice and her face, but most of all by her manner, by the way Varenka obviously thought nothing of her singing and was quite unmoved by their praises.

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The richly dressed actresses and actors tripped about singing bravely and pretending not to mind it.

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But Adam did not need it, Nor the plough he would not speed it, Singing:--"Earth and Water, Air and Fire, What more can mortal man desire?"(The Apple Tree's in bud.)

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With a quantity or pitch even more of genius or unusualness in him than in Jerry, Michael learned more quickly, and since the way of his education was singing, he came to sing far beyond the best Villa Kennan ever taught Jerry.

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DOWN among the grass and fragrant clover lay little Eva by the brook-side, watching the bright waves, as they went singing by under the drooping flowers that grew on its banks.

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Then he touched the door with the flower, and it sprang open; so that he went in through the court, and listened when he heard so many birds singing. At last he came to the chamber where the fairy sat, with the seven hundred birds singing in the seven hundred cages.

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