sing

verb sings · singing · sang · sung · sungen

1. intransitive To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice. 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.
2. intransitive To perform a vocal part in a musical composition, regardless of technique. "I really want to sing in the school choir," said Vera.
3. transitive To express audibly by means of a harmonious vocalization. sing a lullaby
4. transitive To soothe with singing. to sing somebody to sleep
5. ambitransitive To produce a 'song', for the purposes of defending a breeding territory or to attract a mate.
6. ambitransitive, literary To produce any type of melodious vocalisation. ⁠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.
7. idiomatic To rejoice. My heart was singing.
8. idiomatic, intransitive, slang To confess under interrogation.
9. intransitive To make a small, shrill sound. The air sings in passing through a crevice.
10. ambitransitive To relate in verse; to celebrate in poetry; to praise. Who would not ſing for Lycidas? he knew / Himſelf to ſing, and build the lofty rhyme.
11. idiomatic, intransitive To display fine qualities; to stand out as excellent. The sauce really makes this lamb sing.
12. ergative To be capable of being sung; to produce a certain effect by being sung. 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.
13. Australia In traditional Aboriginal culture, to direct a supernatural influence on (a person or thing), usually malign; to curse. ‘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.’
14. archaic, slang To yell or shout. 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.

Similar: sing · Opposite: lip-sync, lip sync, mime, mouth

noun sings

1. The act, or event, of singing songs. I sometimes have a quick sing in the shower.
2. Any sound likened to human singing. heard the unmistakable twang of bowstrings against bracers, the sing of a long-bow volley, and made for the door

proper noun Sings

1. A surname from English [in turn originating as an occupation].
2. A surname from Chinese.
3. alternative Alternative spelling of Singh A South Asian surname For quotations using this term, see Citations:Sing.
4. a Sikh surname