chirrup

present singular third person chirrups · participle present chirruping · participle past chirruped · past chirruped

1. intransitiveTo make a series of chirps, clicks, or clucks.

   Wherever he went the Sparrows chirruped, and said to each other, “What a distinguished stranger!” so he enjoyed himself very much.

   1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: Duckworth, published 1928, page 25

   2 more examples

   When other folks' squirrels are at home and asleep, yourn keep in motion among the trees and chirrup and sing, in a way that even a Delaware gal can understand their music!

   1841, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 17, in The Deerslayer: Or, the First War-path

   Face Eater Cat is a very happy, healthy animal who's found her forever home, and she chirrups along when serenaded with eighties hits. It's a match made in heaven.

   2022 July 23, “A She-Cat Tamed By The Purr Of Her Humans”, in Not Always Right, archived from the original on 11 Dec 2022

2. transitiveTo express by chirping.

   The crickets chirruped their song.

   1 more example

   'Busy, Max?' chirruped the familiar voice of his friend the inquiry agent—incurably brisk and debonair even after its ten miles' journey along the wire.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

3. transitiveTo quicken or animate by chirping.

   to chirrup a horse

plural chirrups

1. A series of chirps, clicks or clucks.

   1845 Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, Chirp the First, And here, if you like, the Cricket DID chime in! with a Chirrup, Chirrup, Chirrup of such magnitude, by way of chorus […]

   2 more examples

   […] the music flashed by in delirious chirrups and stampings.

   2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN

   the slight chirrup of a stoppered phial being opened

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

2. derogatoryfigurativelyA brief, high-pitched, insignificant statement.

   “[…]Children, say ‘thank you’ to Mrs. Samuel Josephs.” Two subdued chirrups: “Thank you, Mrs. Samuel Josephs.”

   1918 June, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 2

   1 more example

   For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards of exchange.

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC