whooshing

Pluralwhooshings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A rushing sound, or a rapid sweeping motion, produced by something moving quickly through air or water.

   The whooshing of the rollercoaster cars echoed across the park.

   A sudden whooshing of flame burst from the open furnace door.

   Similarrushing, rush

   Note

   A true noun, unlike the gerund inside the verb's -ing form. It takes a plural, whooshings, and sits naturally after an article or before of: the whooshing of the cars, a sudden whooshing of flame. To tell the two apart, look for an object. A gerund can take one directly (whooshing the bags aboard), but the noun cannot and needs of to name the source of the sound.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of whoosh.

   Cars kept whooshing by on the wet highway.

   The rocket lifted off with a great whooshing of flame and smoke.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb, not only the sound: cars whooshing past, a point whooshing by someone who missed it, a porter whooshing bags onto a trolley. In Multicultural London English slang the verb means to shoot, so a transitive use with a person as its object can be heard that way. With things, or with by and past, it stays harmless.

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