Whistling
//ˈ(h)wɪslɪŋ// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A shrill, breathy sound; a whistle.
- 2 the act of whistling a tune wordnet
- 3 the act of signalling (e.g., summoning) by whistling or blowing a whistle wordnet
- 4 the sound made by something moving rapidly or by steam coming out of a small aperture wordnet
Verb
- 1 present participle and gerund of whistle form-of, gerund, participle, present
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The boomerang hurtled whistling through the air."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English whistlynge, equivalent to whistle + -ing.
Etymology 2
From Middle English whistlinge, whystlynge, from Old English hwistlung, equivalent to whistle + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "whistling"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.