different between whirr vs thrum

English

Alternative forms

• whir

Etymology

From Middle English whirren, probably from Old Norse: compare Danish hvirre, virre, Norwegian kvirre, Old Norse hvirfla (“to whirl, spread”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /w??/ or IPA^(key): /???/ (especially Scottish English)
• (US) enPR: wûr, IPA^(key): /w?/ or enPR: hwûr, IPA^(key): /??/ (in accents without the wine-whine merger)
• Rhymes: -??(r)
• Homophone: were (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Verb

whirr (third-person singular simple present whirrs, present participle whirring, simple past and past participle whirred)

1. To move or vibrate (something) with a buzzing sound.
2. (intransitive) To make a sibilant buzzing or droning sound.
3. (transitive) To cause (something) to make such a sound.

Synonyms

• (make a sibilant buzzing or droning sound): buzz, drone, hum, purr, whine, whistle, whizz
• (cause (something) to make such a sound):

Translations

Noun

whirr (plural whirrs)

1. A sibilant buzz or vibration; the sound of something in rapid motion.
   • 2007, Jeffrey Engel, Sherol Engel, & James A. Swan, Chasing The Hunter's Dream: 1,001 of the World's Best Duck Marshes, Deer Runs, Elk Meadows, Pheasant Fields, Bear Woods, Safaris, and Extraordinary Hunts, HarperCollins (2007), ?ISBN, page 212:

     Then the exploding whirr of wings in the wind — a mixed covey of bobwhites and scalies.

2. A bustle of noise and excitement.

Synonyms

• (sibilant buzz or vibration): buzz, drone, hum, purr, whine, whistle, whizz

• (bustle of noise and excitement): bustle, hustle

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???m/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???m/
• Rhymes: -?m

Etymology 1

Imitative.

Noun

thrum (plural thrums)

1. A thrumming sound; a hum or vibration.
   • 1955, Elizabeth Bowen, A World of Love, Chapter 2:

     Pungent sweat and heatedly trodden grass, fumes of tea and porter, thrum of hooves from the paddock, the strikings-up and dyings-down of the band all fused into an extreme for Antonia, whose own senses, boatful, stood up to it.

2. (figuratively) A spicy taste; a tang.

Verb

thrum (third-person singular simple present thrums, present participle thrumming, simple past and past participle thrummed)

1. To cause a steady rhythmic vibration, usually by plucking.

   She watched as he thrummed the guitar strings absently.

2. To make a monotonous drumming noise.

   to thrum on a table

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English thrum, throm (> Anglo-French trome), from Old English *þrum (found in tungeþrum (“ligament of the tongue”)) from Proto-Germanic *þrum?. Cognate with German Trumm and Old Norse thr?mr (“edge, brim”).

Alternative forms

• thrumb

Noun

thrum (plural thrums)

1. The ends of the warp threads in a loom which remain unwoven attached to the loom when the web is cut.
2. (chiefly in plural) A fringe made of such threads.
3. Any short piece of leftover thread or yarn; a tuft or tassel.
4. (botany) A threadlike part of a flower; a stamen.
5. (botany) A tuft, bundle, or fringe of any threadlike structures, as hairs on a leaf, fibers of a root.
6. (anatomy) A bundle of minute blood vessels, a plexus.
7. (nautical, chiefly in plural) Small pieces of rope yarn used for making mats or mops.
8. (nautical) A mat made of canvas and tufts of yarn.
9. (mining) A shove out of place; a small displacement or fault along a seam.

Translations

Adjective

thrum (not comparable)

1. Made of or woven from thrum.
   • 1768, Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, "The Husband: Paris"

     In Paris, there are scarce two orders of beings more different: for the legislative and executive powers of the shop not resting in the husband, he seldom comes there:—in some dark and dismal room behind, he sits commerce-less, in his thrum nightcap, the same rough son of Nature that Nature left him.

Verb

thrum (third-person singular simple present thrums, present participle thrumming, simple past and past participle thrummed)

1. To furnish with thrums; to insert tufts in; to fringe.
   • 1644-1646, Francis Quarles, Boanerges and Barnabas—Wine and Oyle for […] afflicted Soules

     are we born to thrum caps or pick straw?

2. (nautical) To insert short pieces of rope-yarn or spun yarn in.

   to thrum a piece of canvas, or a mat, thus making a rough or tufted surface

Anagrams

• murth