hushing

verb

present participle of hush
1
as in cooling
to become still and orderly the whole room hushed when the queen made her entrance

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2
as in quieting (down)
to stop talking the principal asked the children to hush and pay attention during the ceremony

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in shushing
to stop the noise or speech of he tried to hush the baby by making a lot of silly faces

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of hushing Nelson remembers hushing her foster children back to sleep that night and calling 911, anxious for an end to those sleepless nights. — Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 2 Sep. 2026 If you’re used to traditional decluttering strategies that focus on sorting and purging, house hushing might feel strange. — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 July 2026 There are a lot of ways to declutter out there—the pile method and the discernment method are two of them, and now, everyone’s hushing their house. — Quincy Bulin, Southern Living, 28 Dec. 2025 Unfortunately, the austerity and elegance of the downstairs dining room acts as a dampener, hushing the salad’s brashness and sapping much of the fun. — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hushing
  1. cooling
  2. drying up
  3. shushing
  4. clamming up
  5. silencing
  6. quieting
  7. muting
Verb
  • If not the margin of error, this could be down to thermal management, as the XPS Googlebook is the smallest and lightest of the lineup, leaving less room for cooling hardware and heat dissipation than the HP model.
    — Joe Osborne, PC Magazine, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Hot flashes and night sweats are common symptoms of menopause that can become life threatening during extreme heat events and when cooling, hydration and hormone therapy are limited or unavailable.
    — Jaquelyn Jahn, The Conversation, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of cooling
Verb
  • Qatar is largely offline now because of the Iran war, and more of Australia’s offshore gas fields are drying up.
    — Jordan Blum, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2026
  • This would be best done in late May and early June when the leaves are drying up.
    — Dr. Matthew Lisy, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of drying up
Verb
  • Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim went to 3-0 for the week with a crowd-shushing rally from 2 down to a 2-and-1 victory over Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 26 Sep. 2026
  • Trae Young won Madison Square Garden’s undying enmity in the 2021 playoffs for the Atlanta Hawks, punctuating game-breaking shots by shushing the crowd or bowing to the fans and waving goodbye.
    — Leah Asmelash, CNN Money, 9 June 2026
Definition of shushing
Verb
  • Less sweat-trapping than many synthetic jackets, the Oreus kept me from clamming up while ski-touring in five-degree temps and dissipated sweat quickly when worn after strenuous climbs.
    — Kelly Bastone, Outside, 10 Feb. 2026
Definition of clamming up
Verb
  • Mookie Betts drove a fly ball to the warning track, momentarily silencing the crowd, until Mitchell closed his glove around it.
    — Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Rights groups have, however, accused the country of sportswashing to cover up its reputation for silencing critics, including accusations of killings and disappearances, allegations the government denies.
    — Damian Zane, semafor.com, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of silencing
Verb
  • Patrick Mahomes finished the job by scrambling up the middle, simultaneously giving the Chiefs an early lead and quieting some doubts about his reconstructed ACL and LCL.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Use the words that suit the tone of the piece, and that might mean quieting your inner voice, or the voice of your mother.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of quieting
Verb
  • The Broncos’ defense will produce two takeaways, muting 14 receptions by the Rams’ tight ends and running backs.
    — Sam Jane, Denver Post, 26 Sep. 2026
  • Among several solutions such as time limits and muting notifications during certain hours, the changes include giving teens the option to choose to view a non-algorithmic social media feed that isn’t personalized.
    — Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of muting

Browse Nearby Words

hush-hush
hushing
hushing (up)
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Cite this Entry

“Hushing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hushing. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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