Hiss

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hɪs/
• Rhymes: -ɪs

Origin

Onomatopoeic.

Full definition of hiss

Noun

1. A high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.
2. An expression of disapproval made to sound like the noise of a snake.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make a hissing sound.As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.The arrow hissed through the air.
• WordsworthShod with steel,
  We hissed along the polished ice.
• 2011, December 14, John Elkington, John Elkington, It turns out that the driver of the red Ferrari that caused the crash wasn't, as I first guessed, a youngster, but a 60-year-old. Clearly, he had energy to spare, which was more than could be said about a panel I listened to around the same time as the crash. Indeed, someone hissed in my ear during a First Magazine awards ceremony in London's imposing Marlborough House on 7 December: "What we need is more old white men on the stage."
2. (transitive) To condemn or express contempt for by hissing.
• Bible, Ezekiel xxvii. 36The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee.
• Shakespeareif the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them
3. (transitive) To utter with a hissing sound.
• Tennysonthe long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise