hush

(hush), v. [ only in the pp. hu ht, hust, hoscht, huyst, and whist (> mod. E. whist, a.) = LG. hii en, dim. Iii eken, in hi is sken, lull (children) to sleep: ef. liischen, Iiisken, swing, rock, hu e-bu e, a lullaby, MHG. husch, an interj. to denote shivering, G. husch, quick! at once! (also translated ‘hush!’), > G. huschen (colloq.), slip off, vanish, = Dan. hy e, v., hush, hys! interj., hush! Ult. imitative, the forms ’sh, ’ , hush, and, with a final check, ’sht, ’st, husht, hust, hist, whist, being sibilations requiring the least muscular effort and admitting of the faintest utterance: see hist, husht,’sh, st, whist.) I, trans. 1. To reduce to silence; make still or quiet; check or suppre the sound of. a My lord would speak, my duty hushes me. Shak., T. N., v. 1. But now a joy too deep for sound, A peace no other season knows, Hushes the heavens and wraps the ground. Bryant, A Summer Ramble. With wide wing The fork-tailed restle kite sailed over her, Hushing the twitter of the linnets near. William Morris, Earthly Paradise, IT. 218. 2. To appease; allay; calm, as commotion or agitation. It [retirement] hushes and lays asleep those troublesome pa ions which are the great disturbers of our repose and happine . Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, I. x. All her fears were hush’d together. Cowper, A Fable. 3. In mining, to clear off (the soil and surface dirt), in order to expose the bed-rock, so that it can be ascertained whether there,are indications of a vein or metalliferous deposit. [Not used in the U. S.]—To hush up, to suppre mention or discu ion of; procure silence concerning; keep unmentioned or concealed. When the plague begins in many places and they certainly know it, they command silence and hush it up. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 277. This matter is hushed wp, and the servants are forbid to talk of it. Pope. II. in trans. To be still; be silent or quiet; make no noise. At these strangers’ presence every one did hush. Spenser. 20 hush up, to be silent; cease; hold one’s tongue. [Coloq.) We pa ed out, Greene following us with loud words, which brought the four sailors to the door, when I told him to hush up, or I would take him prisoner. W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, I. 37.