Word.ws English Dictionary

croon

/kɹuːn/US/kɹun/

croon verb: to hum or sing (a song or tune), or to speak (words), softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing (a popular song) in a low, mellow voice.

Verb

croon (third-person singular simple present croons, present participle crooning, simple past and past participle crooned)

  1. (transitive) To hum or sing (a song or tune), or to speak (words), softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing (a popular song) in a low, mellow voice.
    • He was crooning a song.
    • Tam ſkelpit on thro' dub and mire, / Deſpiſing vvind, and rain, and fire; / VVhiles holding faſt his gude blue bonnet; / VVhiles crooning o'er ſome auld Scots ſonnet; […]1790 (date written; published 1791), Robert Burns, “Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale.”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William...
  2. (transitive) To soothe (a person or an animal) by singing softly.
    • [I]n his ill-remembered prayer, and in the fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep, there breathed as true a spirit as ever studied homily expressed, or old cathedral arches echoed.1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 73.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 364
    • “But, you know, crooners gonna croon.”2021 September 16, Sarah Naftalis, “The Casino” (8:14 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 3, episode 1, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou)
  3. (intransitive) To hum or sing, or to speak, softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing a popular song in a low, mellow voice.
    • She was crooning, but I couldn’t make out what the song was.
    • But hark! the robin takes up the strain. […] Thou art a type of the true poet, even of him who "crooneth to himsel" amid poverty, and want, and toil. Other birds require the sunshine and the flower to wake their musical utterances, but the drifting flake and the arrowy hail stay not thy song.1856, Hugh M‘Donald, “No. XX.—Kirkintilloch and Campsie.”, in Rambles round Glasgow, Descriptive, Historical, and Traditional, 2nd edition, Glasgow: Thomas Murray and Son, →OCLC, page 390
    Synonyms:
    coo
  4. (Northern England, Scotland, intransitive) To lament, to moan.
  5. (Northern England, Scotland, intransitive) To make a continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle; to bellow, to low.
    • Novv Clinkumbell, vvi' rattlin tovv, / Begins to jovv an' croon; […]1786, Robert Burns, “The Holy Fair”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza...
    • Even the dull cattle crooned and gazed, / And murmured and looked with anxious pain / For something the mystery to explain.1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the Second. Kilmeny. The Thirteenth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and...
  6. (Northern England, Scotland, intransitive) Of a large bell: to make a low-pitched sound.

Noun

croon (plural croons)

  1. A soft, low-pitched sound; specifically, a soft or sentimental hum, song, or tune.
    • O, a’ ye Bards on bonie Doon! / An’ vvha on Ayr your chanters tune! / Come, join the melancholious croon / O’ Robin’s reed! / His heart vvill never get aboon! / His Mailie’s dead!1793, Robert Burns, “Poor Mailie’s Elegy”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC...
    • Bitterly she cried as she thought over the old hag's croon:— / "Quick joy, long pain, / You will take your gift again."1866, C[harles] Kingsley, “How Hereward Turned Berserker”, in Hereward the Wake, “Last of the English.” […], volume I, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 249
  2. (Northern England, Scotland) A continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle; a bellow.
    • Amang the brachens, on the brae, / Betvveen her an' the moon, / The Deil, or elſe an outler Quey, / Gat up an' gae a croon: […]1785 (date written), Robert Burns, “Halloween”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793...
    • The bittern mounts the morning air; / And rings the sky with quavering croon; […]1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the Third. Mary Scott. The Fourteenth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and...
  3. (Northern England, Scotland) The low-pitched sound of a large bell.

croon meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Malay and Vietnamese

croon in Tamil

மெல்லிய, இதமான குரலில் பாடு, முணுமுணுப்பான குரலில் பேசு, மென்மையாகப் பாடி அமைதிப்படுத்து, மென்மையாக, இதமாகப் பாடுகை

croon in Malayalam

sing softly, hum, warble
മൂളുക, പാട്ടുമൂളുക, ഈണം മൂളുക, വാക്കുകളില്ലാതെ ഈണം മൂളുക, മൂളിപ്പാട്ടു പാടുക, കൂജനം ചെയ്യുക

croon in Malay

to soothe (a person or an animal) by singing softly
ulit

croon in Vietnamese

(transitive, intransitive) to hum or sing (a song or tune) softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; to sing (a popular song) in a low, mellow voice
ngâm nga

Examples of croon in a sentence

  • So they went, toiling up [the staircase]; she singing all the way, and Paul sometimes crooning out a feeble accompaniment.1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Paul's Further Progress, Growth, and Character”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and...
  • [A]ny other woman would have been melted to marrow at hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise.1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IX, in Jane Eyre. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […]...
  • Thou croonest thy wild death-song o'er the world; / Serene Futurity thou dost conceal; / Thy banner is the shroud, the pall unfurled / Above mankind; […]1856, Thomas L[ake] Harris, “Part Three”, in A Lyric of the Golden Age, New York, N.Y.: Partridge and Brittan, […], →OCLC, page 223:
  • By the light of the silvery moon, / I want to spoon, / To my honey I'll croon love's tune, […]1909, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”, Ed[ward] Madden (lyrics), Gus Edwards (music), New York, N.Y.: Gus Edwards Music Pub Co, →OCLC...

All 19 example sentences with croon

Synonyms of croon

Forms of croon

Verb
third-person singular presentcroons
present participlecrooning
past participlecrooned
pastcrooned
second-person singular present (archaic)croonest
second-person singular past (archaic)croonedst
third-person singular present (archaic)crooneth
Noun
pluralcroons

Past tense of croon: crooned

Origin of croon

The verb is borrowed from Scots croon (“to utter a deep, long-drawn-out sound; to utter a lament, mourn; to sing in a wailing voice, whimper, whine; to mutter or sing in an undertone, hum”) [and other forms], from Middle English cronen (“to sing or speak softly, hum, croon”) (croyn (Scotland)) [and other forms], probably from Middle Dutch crônen, krônen (“to groan, moan; to lament”) (modern Dutch kreunen (“to moan”)), or Old High German chrônan, krônen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), probably from Proto-West Germanic *kraunijan, from Proto-Indo-European *gerH- (“to cry hoarsely”). The noun is partly: * borrowed from Scots croon (“a lament, wail; mournful song; low murmuring tune; (obsolete) long-drawn-out sound”), from croon (verb): see above; and * derived from the verb. Cognates * Middle Dutch krônen (modern Dutch kreunen (“to groan, moan; to lament”)) * Middle Low German kroenen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), kronen (“to growl; to grumble; to scold”) * Old High German chrônan, chrônnan (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”) * Saterland Frisian krȫnen (“to cause to weep”)

Words formed from croon

Words that rhyme with croon

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about croon

What does croon mean?
Croon means to hum or sing (a song or tune), or to speak (words), softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; specifically, to sing (a popular song) in a low, mellow voice.
What is croon in Tamil?
Croon in Tamil is மெல்லிய, இதமான குரலில் பாடு, முணுமுணுப்பான குரலில் பேசு. See Croon meaning in Tamil.
How do you use croon in a sentence?
So they went, toiling up [the staircase]; she singing all the way, and Paul sometimes crooning out a feeble accompaniment.
What part of speech is croon?
Croon can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce croon?
Croon is pronounced /kɹuːn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of croon?
The past tense of croon is crooned.

Words near croon in the dictionary

  1. crooling
  2. crools
  3. Croom
  4. Croome
  5. Crooms
  6. croon
  7. Croone
  8. crooned
  9. crooner
  10. crooners
  11. croonest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: croon (page history and authors); croon (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); croon (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-croon.wav.

Cite this entry: “croon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/croon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.