hissing

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of hiss

   Our solid, shiny chairs, our immense, dingy sofas, our heavy mahogany tables and our cast-iron fenders, often bearing the initials of long-dead railway companies, likewise our plaster walls of chocolate and duck-egg green and our hissing gasoliers have their roots deep in our national history.

   1941 August, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The English Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 357

comparative more hissing · superlative most hissing

1. that produces or is accompanied with a hiss

   At all times when kissing and such like things are begun, the woman should give a reply with a hissing sound.

   1883, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Karma Sutra

plural hissings

1. The sound of a hiss.

   The hissings and screamings of the vulgar against him as he moved forward on his stedfast course he heeded less than those of geese on a common.

   1875, John Lothrop Motley, The Life and Death of John of Barneveld Advocate of Holland