chirrup
/ˈtʃɪrəp
/verb (chirrups, chirruping, chirruped) [no object]
1(Of a small bird) make repeated short, high-pitched sounds: a bird chirruped intermittently outside...
- A bird chirruped from the boughs of a nearby tree.
- No life was visible - no birds chirruped in the matchstick trees, no children laughed among the remnants of the blaze.
- In the branches above him birds chirruped, startling him.
1.1 [with direct speech] (Of a person) say something in a high-pitched voice: ‘Yes, Miss Honey,’ chirruped eighteen voices...
- ‘Excellent, Princess Emmeline,’ The first nymph chirruped brightly.
- ‘A pretty penny for the NHS,’ it chirruped the day after the budget.
- He's not from England, has visa problems, has money problems, has four kids back home: ‘Love will find a way,’ she chirrups to me.
noun
A short, high-pitched sound: the chirrups of the crickets...
- A thousand frogs who had been silent for two years were calling to each other in the wash… a monumental chorus of deep lusty ba-booms, frenzied clicks and seductive chirrups.
- The meadow was silent save for the chirrups of crickets.
- The usual chirrup of crickets down below filled Lily's ears, but as she glanced up at the stars, vaguely picking Ursa Major out of the bunch, she suddenly felt D.J.'s arm wrap around her.
Derivatives
chirrupy
- His chirrupy letters to Hofmannsthal make no mention of the trauma he was going through, namely that the text was triggering deep anxieties deriving from his own ambivalent attitude towards his parents.
- Meanwhile, strange chirrupy sounds draw me to the puppet show dais!
- Festive sprays of leaf and berry heighten the bright and breezy feel of this sub-Saharan Dinky-Dell, and enhance its Greeting Card air of chirrupy good cheer.
Origin
Late 16th century: alteration of chirp, by trilling the -r-.