different between buzz vs clack

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?z, IPA^(key): /b?z/
• Hyphenation: buzz
• Rhymes: -?z

Noun

buzz (countable and uncountable, plural buzzes)

1. A continuous, humming noise, as of bees; a confused murmur, as of general conversation in low tones.
2. A whisper.
3. The audible friction of voice consonants.
4. (informal) A rush or feeling of energy or excitement; a feeling of slight intoxication.

   Still feeling the buzz from the coffee, he pushed through the last of the homework.

5. (informal) A telephone call or e-mail.
6. (informal) Major topic of conversation; widespread rumor; information spread behind the scenes.
   • 2006 Sept. 6, Daren Fonda, "Ford Motor's New Chief: "I Think It's a Tough Situation"," Time:

     In Detroit, the buzz is that he's too nice a guy, unwilling to impose draconian job cuts at the risk of angering the UAW.

   • 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1):

     Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Who's he?

     Patrick: He's only the most popular kid in school.

     Allen Gregory: Ah, the two heavyweights finally meet. Sure you're tired of all the buzz. Allen Gregory DeLongpre.

     Joel Zadak: Joel...Zadak!

Translations

Verb

buzz (third-person singular simple present buzzes, present participle buzzing, simple past and past participle buzzed)

1. (intransitive) To make a low, continuous, humming or sibilant sound, like that made by bees with their wings.
   • 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha

     Like a wasp it buzzed, and stung him.

   • 1922, D. H. Lawrence, Fantasia of the Unconscious, ch. 2:

     So that now the universe has escaped from the pin which was pushed through it, like an impaled fly vainly buzzing, […] we can hope also to escape.

   1. (by extension) To utter a murmuring sound; to speak with a low, humming voice.
   2. Of a group of people, to talk about some interesting topic excitedly.
   3. (chiefly of an insect) To fly while making such a sound.
      • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, ch. 20:

        The flies, lethargic with the autumn, were beginning to buzz into the room.

2. (colloquial) To show a high level of activity and haste, energization or excitement, to be busy as a bee in one’s actions but perhaps mentally charged.
3. (transitive) To whisper; to communicate, as tales, in an undertone; to spread, as a report, by whispers or secretly.
4. (transitive) To talk to incessantly or confidentially in a low humming voice.
5. (aviation) To fly at high speed and at a very low altitude over a specified area, as to make a surprise pass.
   • 2013, The Economist, Stopping asteroid strikes: Defenders of the Earth

     […] an asteroid a mere 15-20 metres across exploded with the force of a medium-sized atom bomb over Chelyabinsk, in Russia, and another, much larger one buzzed Earth a few hours later.

6. (transitive) To cut the hair in a close-cropped military style, or buzzcut.
   • 2012, Ellen Hartman, Out of Bounds (page 130)

     Deacon said, “You used to beg me to let you buzz your hair when you were little.” “And then I grew up and realized how awful you looked when you buzzed yours.”

7. (archaic, transitive) To drink to the bottom.
   • 1849, The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register

     He buzzed the bottle with such a hearty good will as settled the fate of another, which Soapey rang for as a matter of course. There was but the rejected one, which however Spigot put into a different decanter and brought in […]

8. (transitive) To communicate with (a person) by means of a buzzer.
   • 2012, Steven Joseph Sinopoli, The Seventh House (page 66)

     Then one day my secretary buzzed me and said Frank Sinatra was on the phone. When I picked up the phone it was the Chief who played dumb and would not admit that he said he was Frank Sinatra.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:buzz.

Translations

Derived terms

• abuzz
• buzzword

Related terms

• buzz cut
• buzz saw

Further reading

• buzz on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From English buzz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bøz/, /byz/

Noun

buzz m (uncountable)

1. buzz (excitement)

English

Etymology

From Middle English clacken, clakken, claken, from Old English *clacian (“to slap, clap, clack”), from Proto-Germanic *klak?n? (“to clap, chirp”). Cognate with Scots clake, claik (“to utter cries", also "to bedaub, sully with a sticky substance”), Dutch klakken (“to clack, crack”), Low German klakken (“to slap on, daub”), Norwegian klakke (“to clack, strike, knock”), Icelandic klaka (“to twitter, chatter, wrangle, dispute”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klæk/

Noun

clack (plural clacks)

1. An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk.
2. Anything that causes a clacking noise, such as the clapper of a mill, or a clack valve.
3. Chatter; prattle.

   • whose chief intent is to vaunt his spiritual clack

4. (colloquial) The tongue.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clack (third-person singular simple present clacks, present participle clacking, simple past and past participle clacked)

1. (intransitive) To make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
2. (transitive) To cause to make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
3. To chatter or babble; to utter rapidly without consideration.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Feltham to this entry?)
4. (Britain) To cut the sheep's mark off (wool), to make the wool weigh less and thus yield less duty.
5. Dated form of cluck.
   • 1934, Gladys Bagg Taber, Late Climbs the Sun (page 30)

     Only the chickens clacked at the Saturday quiet and fat mouse-minded cats licked whiskers on the empty steps.

   • 1964, Frances Margaret Cheadle McGuire, Gardens of Italy (page 57)

     We drive on between meadows of mown grass, through a pergola of vines, and so to an orchard of peaches, apples, and pears and a hen colony housed in neat modern cottages, the chickens clacking and scratching away […]

Translations