churtle

English

Etymology

From chirt +‎ -le.

Verb

churtle (third-person singular simple present churtles, present participle churtling, simple past and past participle churtled)

1. To chirp.
   • 1894, Albert Gibson, Robert McLean, editors, Law Notes, volume 13, Reeves & Turner, page 132:

     The staff of the Law Notes is amused; even the office cat was observed to wink and his purr sounded suspiciously like a “feline churtle”.

   • 1992, Turkish Reflections: A Biography of a Place, page 104:

     When we went there in the morning, there was, all through the mosque, a sound of chanting like doves churtling.

   • 2020 February 20, Dale A. Zimmerman, David J. Pearson, Donald A. Turner, “BULBULS”, in Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania, Bloomsbury Publishing, COMMON or DARK-CAPPED BULBUL, page 434:

     Songs involve repetition of one note: churtle-churtle-churtle-churtle or wurtilee-wurtilee-wurtilee given separately or intermingled.

References

“churtle”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.