hubub

Noun (1)

hubbub (countable and uncountable, plural hubbubs)

1. (countable) A confused sound of a crowd of people shouting or speaking simultaneously; an uproar.
   • They heard a noyſe of many bagpipes ſhrill, / And ſhrieking Hububs them approching nere, / VVhich all the foreſt did vvith horrour fill: […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 43, page 554

   Synonyms:

   hubbuboo, hue and cry, racket, tumult

2. (broadly, uncountable) Noisy confusion; commotion, uproar; (countable) an instance of this; an ado, a commotion.
   • The vvindovves clattring / And all the Chambermaides in ſuch a vvhobub, / One vvith her ſmocke halfe off, another in haſt / VVith a ſervingmans hoſe upon her head.1610–1616 (date written), Iohn [i.e., John] Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas. A Comedy. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1639, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, signature [H6], verso

   Synonyms:

   hubbuboo, tumult, ado, argy-bargy, bangarang, bobbery, brouhaha, bunfight, bustle, bust-up

3. (countable, obsolete) A sound of people making a battle cry or war cry.

   Synonyms:

   hubbuboo

Noun (2)

hubbub (uncountable)

1. (US, historical) Synonym of bowl game (“a Native American game of chance involving the throwing of colored nuts from a bowl, comparable to dice”).
   • They have tvvo ſorts of games, one called Puim, the other Hubbub, not much unlike Cards and Dice, being no other than Lotterie. […] Hubbub is five ſmall Bones in a ſmall ſmooth Tray, the bones bee like a Die, but ſomething flatter, blacke on one ſide and vvhite on the other, vvhich they place on...1634, William Wood, “Their Games and Sports of Activitie”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London...

   Synonyms:

   bowl game

See all 5 meanings of hubbub