hissing

Verb

hiss (third-person singular simple present hisses, present participle hissing, simple past and past participle hissed)

1. (intransitive) To make a hiss, a sibilant sound of air escaping.
   • As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.

   Synonyms:

   fizzle, fizz

2. (transitive) To call someone by hissing.
   • I stepped out of my tent in Marrakech one night to get a bar of candy and caught your dose of clap when that Wac I never even saw before hissed me into the bushes.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 172
3. (intransitive, transitive) To condemn or express contempt (for someone or something) by hissing.
   • The crowd booed and hissed her off the stage.
4. (transitive) To utter (something) with a hissing sound.
   • Lies oft o’erthrown with ceaseless Venom spread,
     Still hiss out Scandal from their Hydra Head,1761, Robert Lloyd, An Epistle to C. Churchill, London: William Flexney, page 7
5. (intransitive) To move with a hissing sound.
   • The arrow hissed through the air.
6. (transitive) To emit or eject (something) with a hissing sound.
   • The man in white pyjamas hissed soda into his glass.1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 1, p. 72

See all 9 meanings of hiss