song
nounUK /sɒŋ/ · AU, UK /sɔŋ/
Etymology From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.
8 senses
- 1A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices…
- 2Any musical composition.
- 3Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
- 4The act or art of singing.
- 5A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
- 6The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract…
- 7A low price, especially one under the expected value…
- 8An object of derision; a laughing stock.
1
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.
- Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.
- The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290:
2 more examples
- In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:
- He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights,[…], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
2
Broadly, Colloquial Any musical composition.
3
Poetical composition; poetry; verse.
- This subject for heroic song.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- The bard that first adorned our native tongue / Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
4
The act or art of singing.
- How often the enthusiast has dwelt upon the birds bursting into song, the buds bursting into flower, all nature bursting into life!—as though a state of things in which everything around us is bursting is at all pleasant.1884, Spencer Leigh Hughes, “The Weather. A Short Study on a Great Subject.”, in Golden Hours: A Monthly Magazine for Family and General Reading, volume XVII, London: Lile and Fawcett, […], page 28, column 1:
- Or take one that is less of an explanation and more of a song , The Spider . I knew all along what I wanted to say about a spider . I wanted to say all the good things I could . For spiders are the one order of creation that I thoroughly dislike.[…]1942, Robert Peter Tristram Coffin, The Substance that is Poetry (Patten Foundation series), Macmillan, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 71:
5
A melodious sound made by a bird, insect, whale or other animal.
- I love hearing the song of canary birds.
- That most ethereal of all sounds, the song of crickets.1833, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Canterbury Pilgrims:
1 more example
- The robin alone by his soft morning song broke the silence and the solitude which reigned in the forest.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 85:
6
Biology, Natural sciences, Ornithology The distinctive sound that a male bird utters to attract a mate or to protect his territory; contrasts with call; also, similar vocalisations made by female birds.
7
A low price, especially one under the expected value; chiefly in for a song.
- He bought that car for a song.
- his [a common soldier's] pay is a song.1810, Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland:
1 more example
- Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;[…].1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
8
Obsolete An object of derision; a laughing stock.
- And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 30:9:
- Derived terms
118 terms
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- canticle, go for a song