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any short, quick motion, regularly repeated, as of a medium in the transmission of light, sound, etc.; oscillation; vibration; pulsation; impulse; beat; movement. The measured pulse of racing oars. Tennyson. When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a single pulse of the air, which makes the eardrum and t…

A play on words which have the same sound but different meanings; an expression in which two different applications of a word present an odd or ludicrous idea; a kind of quibble or equivocation. Addison. A better put on this word was made on the Beggar's Opera, which, it was said, made Gay rich, and Rich gay. Walpole.…

To utter a low, murmuring, continued sound, as a cat does when pleased. [Written also purr.]

Of a single, simple sound or tone; -- said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants. Pure-impure, completely or totally impure. "The inhabitants were pure-impure pagans." Fuller. -- Pure blue. (Chem.) See Methylene blue, under Methylene. -- Pure chemistry. See under Chemistry. -- Pure mathematics, that portion…

all stream flowing among stones or other obstructions; to eddy; also, to make a murmuring sound, as water does in running over or through obstructions. Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, Louder and louder purl the falling rills. Pope.

The low murmuring sound made by a cat; pur. See Pur.

, the seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, has but one sound (that of k), and is always followed by u, the two letters together being sounded like kw, except in some words in which the u is silent. See Guide to Pronunciation, § 249. Q is not found in Anglo-Saxon, cw being used instead of qu; as in cwic, quick; c…

To utter a sound like the cry of a duck.

ual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate. It hath no larynx . . . to qualify the sound. Sir T. Browne.

Especially, to shake the voice; to utter or form sound with rapid or tremulous vibrations, as in singing; also, to trill on a musical instrument

To be silent, as a letter; to have no sound. M. Stuart.

Not sounded; silent; as, y is quiescent in "day" and "say."

ide to Pronunciation, §§ 178, 179, and 250-254. "R is the dog's letter and hurreth in the sound." B. Jonson.

dical stress (Elocution), force of utterance falling on the initial part of a syllable or sound. -- Radical vessels (Anat.), minute vessels which originate in the substance of the tissues.

An apparatus for the production of sound by the action of luminous or thermal rays. It is essentially the same as the photophone.

An adventitious sound, usually of morbid origin, accompanying the normal respiratory sounds. See Rhonchus.

To fill or compact by pounding or driving. A ditch . . . was filled with some sound materials, and rammed to make the foundation solid. Arbuthnot.

To rave in violent, high-sounding, or extravagant language, without dignity of thought; to be noisy, boisterous, and bombastic in talk or declamation; as, a ranting preacher. Look where my ranting host of the Garter comes! Shak.

vely: To grate harshly upon; to offend by coarse or rough treatment or language; as, some sounds rasp the ear; his insults rasped my temper.

Like a rasp, or the sound made by a rasp; grating. R. D. Blackmore.