chirrup

Variant of chirp.

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɪɹəp/, /ˈt͡ʃɜɹəp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪɹəp, -ɜːɹəp

chirrup (third-person singular simple present chirrups, present participle chirruping, simple past and past participle chirruped)

1. (intransitive) To make a series of chirps, clicks, or clucks.
   • 1841, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 17, in The Deerslayer: Or, the First War-path‎:

     When other folks' squirrels are at home and asleep, yourn keep in motion among the trees and chirrup and sing, in a way that even a Delaware gal can understand their music!

   • 2022 July 23, “A She-Cat Tamed By The Purr Of Her Humans”, in Not Always Right‎, archived from the original on 11 December 2022:

     Face Eater Cat is a very happy, healthy animal who's found her forever home, and she chirrups along when serenaded with eighties hits. It's a match made in heaven.

2. (transitive) To express by chirping.

   The crickets chirruped their song.

3. (transitive) To quicken or animate by chirping.

   to chirrup a horse

chirrup (plural chirrups)

1. A series of chirps, clicks or clucks.
   • 1845 Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth, Chirp the First,

     And here, if you like, the Cricket DID chime in! with a Chirrup, Chirrup, Chirrup of such magnitude, by way of chorus

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty , London: Picador, →ISBN:

     the music flashed by in delirious chirrups and stampings.

2. (figurative, derogatory) A brief, high-pitched, insignificant statement.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World , London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards of exchange.

   • 1918 June, Katherine Mansfield , “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 2:

     “ Children, say ‘thank you’ to Mrs. Samuel Josephs.” Two subdued chirrups: “Thank you, Mrs. Samuel Josephs.”