lull
/lʌl
/verb [with object]
1Calm or send to sleep, typically with soothing sounds or movements: the rhythm of the boat lulled her to sleep...
- Edmund replied and closed his eyes with a sigh, falling into a deep sleep, lulled by the sound of the waves and Eleanor's voice.
- The methodic rocking of the train and Harvey's steady hands lulled her overtaxed and sleep deprived mind into a deep slumber.
- I closed my eyes, and felt myself being slowly lulled to sleep.
Synonyms
soothe, quiet, hush, lullaby;
rock to sleep
1.1Make (someone) feel deceptively secure or confident: the rarity of earthquakes there has lulled people into a false sense of security...
- There are times I am lulled by familiarity, and I have spent time with people who are less than challenging.
- The design does exactly what it should: it lulls us into a false sense of security.
- Too often, the descriptions are imprecise, perhaps because of Johnson's overzealous desire to unleash sequence after sequence of arresting images, even if it means lulling us into uncertainty.
Synonyms
assuage, allay, ease, alleviate, pacify, palliate, mitigate, placate, mollify;
soothe, quiet, quieten, silence, calm, settle, hush, still, quell, quash, stifle, deaden, repress;
temper, reduce, check, diminish
1.2 [no object] (Of noise or a storm) abate or fall quiet: conversation lulled for an hour...
- With difficulty, they squeezed their way up to the large drawing room to be announced; the buzz of many conversations lulling for a moment as the guests took in the dowager's rare public appearance.
- The guests continued to chitchat through the meal, the conversation lulling to a dull murmur near the middle as they became full and rather sleepy.
- Things were sort of sedate after that and the conversation lulled, then dropped off entirely.
Synonyms
abate, die down, subside, let up, moderate, slacken, lessen, dwindle, decrease, diminish, ebb, fade away, wane, taper off, lower
noun
A temporary interval of quiet or lack of activity: for two days there had been a lull in the fighting...
- What did I do with conversation lulls before I could say ‘Shall I put the kettle on?’
- It's the longest lull in this investigation since he started striking about three weeks ago?
- After a proceedings lull, Celtic produced their fourth of the afternoon.
Synonyms
pause, respite, interval, break, hiatus, suspension, cessation, interlude, intermission, breathing space, moratorium, lacuna;
Prosody caesura
informal let-up, breather
calm, calmness, stillness, quiet, quietness, tranquillity, peace, peacefulness, silence, hush
Phrases
the lull before the storm
Origin
Middle English: imitative of sounds used to quieten a child; compare with Latin lallare 'sing to sleep', Swedish lulla 'hum a lullaby', and Dutch lullen 'talk nonsense'. The noun (first recorded in the sense 'soothing drink') dates from the mid 17th century.