hush up

present singular third person hushes up · participle present hushing up · participle past hushed up · past hushed up

1. informalintransitiveTo become quiet; to cease making sounds.

   Hush up now; you have talked too much.

   Synonyms: hush, hush down, quiet down, quieten down, shut up

2. informaltransitiveTo silence.

   Some people say he knew too much and they killed him to hush him up.

3. transitiveTo keep secret, to prevent from becoming known.

   They hushed up the suicide to prevent bad publicity.

   1 more example

   As he took John Willet's view of the matter in regard to the propriety of not bruiting the tale abroad, unless the spirit should appear to him again, in which case it would be necessary to take immediate counsel with the clergyman, it was solemnly resolved that it should be hushed up and kept quiet.

   1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 33.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 128