whistle

Syllables: whist·le/ˈwɪs(ə)l/

whistle noun: a device designed to be placed in the mouth and blown, or driven by steam or some other mechanism, to make a whistling sound.

Noun

whistle (countable and uncountable, plural whistles)

A device designed to be placed in the mouth and blown, or driven by steam or some other mechanism, to make a whistling sound.
- A lovely crisp exhaust: a feeling of almost unlimited power combined with complete freedom of running: and, to crown it all, a most melodious and wholly American chime whistle—these were my immediate impressions as we stormed rapidly out of Göttingen, intent on winning back some of the lost time.1960 October, P. Ransome-Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 611
- One thing I took great care to observe was obedience to the "whistle" boards which crop up with great frequency, for failure to sound the whistle, if observed by the gendarmerie, can bring about serious consequences.1961 March, ""Balmore"", “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives”, in Trains Illustrated, page 151
An act of whistling.
A shrill, high-pitched sound made by whistling.
- We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.[…]As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
Any high-pitched sound similar to the sound made by whistling.
- the whistle of the wind in the trees
(Cockney, slang) A suit (from whistle and flute).
- We soldiers changed into our No.1 dress uniforms, Sid into his best whistle and we set off for the church.2005, Wally Payne, A Minority of One: A Monkey's Tale Continued
(colloquial) The mouth and throat; so called as being the organs of whistling.
- Let's […] drink the other cup to wet our whistles.1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The...

Verb

whistle (third-person singular simple present whistles, present participle whistling, simple past and past participle whistled)

(ambitransitive) To make a shrill, high-pitched sound by forcing air through the mouth. To produce a whistling sound, restrictions to the flow of air are created using the teeth, tongue and lips.
- Never whistle at a funeral.
- He was whistling a happy tune.
(ambitransitive) To make a similar sound by forcing air through a musical instrument or a pipe etc.
- The steam train whistled as it passed by.
- It requires quite an orchestra to get a train to start; the guard blows his horn, the stationmaster rings a large bell, and the engine whistles.1941 February, Voyageur, “The Railways of Greece”, in Railway Magazine, page 67
(intransitive) To move in such a way as to create a whistling sound.
- A bullet whistled past.
(transitive) To send, signal, or call by a whistle.
(intransitive, slang, Opus Dei) To request admission to Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic organization.

whistle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

whistle in Hindi

sound made by whistling: सीटी sīṭī
device used to make a whistling sound: सीटी sīṭī
act of whistling: सीटी sīṭī
to produce a whistling sound: सीटी देना sīṭī denā

whistle in Tamil

device used to make a whistling sound: ஊதல் ūtal
act of whistling: ஈசல் īcal

whistle in Marathi

sound made by whistling: शिटी śiṭī
device used to make a whistling sound: शिटी śiṭī
act of whistling: शिटी śiṭī
sound similar to the sound made by whistling: शिटी śiṭī

whistle in Urdu

sound made by whistling: سِیٹی sīṭī
device used to make a whistling sound: سِیٹی sīṭī
act of whistling: سِیٹی sīṭī

More languagesFewer languages

whistle in Bengali: সিটি মারা śiṭi mara, সিটি বাজান śiṭi bajan
whistle in Telugu: ఈలవేయు īlavēyu
whistle in Malayalam: ചൂളം cūḷaṁ, ചൂളമടി cūḷamaṭi
whistle in Kannada: ಸಿಳ್ಳು, ಪೀಪಿ, ಸಿಳ್ಳಿ, ಸಿಳ್ಳೆ
whistle in Punjabi: ਸਿੱਟੀ, ਸੀਟੀ ਮਾਰਨ ਲਈ
whistle in Gujarati: સીટી sīṭī
whistle in Odia: ହୁଇସେଲ୍, ହୁଇସେଲ, ହୁଇସଲ୍
whistle in Assamese: সুহুৰি xuhuri, উকি uki, হুইচেল huisel, সুহুৰিয়া xuhuria
whistle in Nepali: सुसेल्नु suselnu, सिटी बजाउनु siṭī bajāunu
whistle in Tagalog: sipol, pito
whistle in Arabic: صَفَّارَة ṣaffāra, صَفَرَ ṣafara, صَفَّرَ ṣaffara
whistle in Malay: siulan, wisel, siul, bersiul
whistle in Indonesian: siulan, peluit, bersiul
whistle in Persian: سوت زدن sut zadan, شپلیدن šepelidan
whistle in Thai: เสียงผิวปาก, นกหวีด nók-wìit, การผิวปาก gaan-pǐu-bpàak, ผิวปาก pǐu-bpàak
whistle in Vietnamese: còi, huýt, huýt sáo, huýt gió
whistle in Myanmar: ဝီစီ wici, ပီပီ pipi, လေချွန် lehkywan

Examples of whistle in a sentence

The dog's ears pricked up at the sound of a whistle.
I need a new phone, but I don’t want all those fancy bells and whistles on it!
In some jurisdictions, it is illegal to fire a person for blowing the whistle on an employer.

All 40 example sentences with whistle

Forms of whistle

Noun
plural	whistles
Verb
third-person singular present	whistles
present participle	whistling
past participle	whistled
past	whistled

Past tense of whistle: whistled

Plural of whistle: whistles

Origin of whistle

From Middle English whistel, whistil, whistle, from Old English hwistle, from the verb (see below).

From Middle English whistlen, from Old English hwistlan, hwistlian (“to whistle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwistlōn, from Proto-Germanic *hwistlōną (“to make a hissing sound”). Cognate with Swedish vissla (“to whistle”), Icelandic hvísla (“to whisper”), Russian свистеть (svistetʹ, “to whistle”).

Words formed from whistle

Words that rhyme with whistle

3 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about whistle

What does whistle mean?: Whistle means a device designed to be placed in the mouth and blown, or driven by steam or some other mechanism, to make a whistling sound.
What is whistle in Hindi?: Whistle in Hindi is सीटी (sīṭī), सीटी देना (sīṭī denā). See Whistle meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is whistle?: Whistle can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce whistle?: Whistle is pronounced /ˈwɪs(ə)l/.
What is the plural of whistle?: The plural of whistle is whistles.

Words near whistle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: whistle (page history and authors); whistle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whistle (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); સીટી (Gujarati) (page history and authors); whistle (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-whistle.ogg.

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