What does "hush" mean?
Hush: To appease; to allay; to calm; to soothe. With thou, then, Hush my cares Otway. And hush'd my deepest grief of all. Tennyson. To hush up, to procure silence concerning; to suppress; to keep secret. "This matter is hushed up." Pope.
Additional senses
- 2.To become or to keep still or quiet; to become silent; -- esp. used in the imperative, as an exclamation; be still; be silent or quiet; make no noise. Hush, idle words, and thoughts of ill. Keble. But all these strangers' presence every one did hush. Spenser.
- 3.Stillness; silence; quiet. [R.] "It is the hush of night." Byron. Hush money, money paid to secure silence, or to prevent the disclosure of facts. Swift.
- 4.Silent; quiet. "Hush as death." Shak.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00