hushaby
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Blend of hush + lullaby[1][2] or hush + -a- (connective interfix) + by (“goodbye, as in bye-bye”).[1][3]
Interjection
[edit]hushaby
- (archaic) hush and be still; a lull to sleep
- 1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 5:
- Hush-a-by, baby, upon the tree-top; / When the wind blows the cradle will rock; / When the bough breaks the cradle will fall; / Down will come cradle and baby and all.
- 1892. Eugene Field. Hushaby Sweet my Own. In With Trumpet and Drum. page 106 [1]:
- The night is fair, and the waves are still,
- And the wind is singing to you and to me
- In this lowly home beside the sea —
- Hushaby, sweet my own!
Noun
[edit]hushaby (plural hushabies)
- A lullaby used to soothe babies to sleep.
- 1832, Thomas Skinner, Excursions in India:
- The moaning of their voices seemed to me to be like what is understood in Scotland by a "sugh," and might very well have passed for a hushaby, when the nurse had nearly succeeded in murmuring herself to sleep, as well as her infant.
Verb
[edit]hushaby (third-person singular simple present hushabies, present participle hushabying, simple past and past participle hushabied)
- (archaic, transitive) To lull to sleep by saying "hushaby".
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “hushaby”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- ^ “hushaby”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ^ “hushaby”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.