microphonous

comparative more microphonous · superlative most microphonous

1. obsoleterareServing to augment the intensity of weak sounds; amplifying.

   Innumerable degrees of crime, but a whisper in the era of Kent and Blackstone, are now of microphonous volume in strenuousness, and as common as the asphyxial conditions which create it.

   1904, L. G. Meushaw, “Criminology”, in The Plea of the Toiler, →OCLC, part II, page 1

   1 more example

   The Meteor was a microphonous ear which caught every whisper of the world, and a megaphonic mouth which could trumpet its news to eager millions, or shut itself up as close as a Bank of England vault.

   1919, Shaw Desmond, chapter 5, in Democracy, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, →OCLC, →OL, page 77

2. datedrareHeard through a microphone.

   The invasion of the microphonous tribe began in February, when Dusty and Goldie […]

   1926, Harold Wallace Ross, William Shawn, Tina Brown, David Remnick, Katharine Sergeant Angell White, Rea Irvin, Roger Angell, The New Yorker

   2 more examples

   A microphonous voice, “Calling Doctor Newton, calling Doctor Nowton” and “Calling Doctor Dovey, calling Doctor Dovey,” heard simultaneously in the corridors of the Queen, Mary Hospital has somewhat puzzled patients newly admitted to the institution.

   1937 July 11, “Radio Voice at Queen Mary Hospital”, in Hong Kong Sunday Herald, volume XII, number 697, page 4

   The incongruity of a vintage Bentley mopping up a field of formula 1 cars at Silverstone complete with microphonous Baxter and Bolster is realistically absurd.

   1963, The Autocar: A Journal Published in the Interests of the Mechanically Propelled Road Carriage