DictionaryAI

whistling

SayWIS-ling/ˈ(h)wɪslɪŋ/

Noun pluralwhistlings

2 meanings of whistling

Practice

  1. 1
    verb
    Present participle and gerund of whistle.

    Bullets came whistling past their heads as they ran for cover.

    She stood on the porch whistling the dogs in for supper.

    Note

    After a verb of motion the participle supplies the sound of the movement: bullets came whistling past, the wind went whistling through the eaves. With an object and an adverb it summons, as in whistling the dogs in. A narrower slang use belongs to Opus Dei, the Roman Catholic organization, where whistling means asking to be admitted as a member.

  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountable
    A shrill, breathy sound of the kind a whistle makes.

    A faint whistling in his chest told the doctor that his asthma had returned.

    All night the tent was filled with the eerie whistlings of the wind in the guy ropes.

    Similarwheezing, whining

    Note

    Old English already had this noun, as hwistlung, built like the verb's own -ing form but handed down on a line of its own. It counts the way a sound should: a whistling in the chest, the whistlings of the wind, the plural catching a sound that keeps coming back.

whistling is a form of whistle

whistle, verb: To make a shrill, high-pitched sound by forcing air through a small opening formed with the lips, tongue, or teeth. Full entry

Forms
whistlewhistles he/she/itwhistling -ing formwhistled past tense, past participle
Spelling
whistle → whistling: drop the e, add -ing

Use it in a sentence

Write your own sentence with whistling, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.

Origins

Meaning 1

From Middle English whistlynge, equivalent to whistle + -ing.

Meaning 2

From Middle English whistlinge or whystlynge, from Old English hwistlung, equivalent to whistle + -ing.