whistle

«whistle» in Mova's judaism dictionary: a small object you blow into to make a loud, high sound — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a whistle, whistles); verb (whistle, whistles, whistled, whistling)

meaning for a pupil

1) A whistle is a small object you blow into to make a loud, high sound. tree →

2) A whistle is the high sound made by blowing through a small gap or by a kettle, a bird or the wind. tree →

3) To whistle means to make a tune or high sound by blowing air through your lips or a whistle. tree →

sense in the lessons

In sport and PE, a referee blows a whistle to start and stop games. In safety, a whistle is a great thing to carry when hiking or camping: three blasts is a signal for help, and lifejackets often have a whistle. In science, a whistle makes sound by making air vibrate, and a kettle whistles when water boils. In everyday life people whistle a tune or whistle for a dog. Phrase: «blow the whistle» means tell people about something wrong.

examples

• The referee blew the whistle for half-time. tree →
• Can you whistle a tune? tree →
• He whistled for his dog to come back. tree →
• Three blasts on a whistle means you need help. tree →
• The kettle whistled when the water boiled. tree →
• The wind whistled through the trees. tree →
• Our lifejackets each have a whistle. tree →
• Whereupon he went off indoors, whistling cheerfully. tree →

note

The «t» is silent: say «WIS-ul». Regular verb: whistled, whistling. Countable noun. «Whistle-blower» = someone who reports wrongdoing. «Clean as a whistle» = very clean.

In the corpora

• Picture a hillside: a shepherd whistles, the dog swings left round the flock, and three hundred sheep move as one.
• Dogs learn the sound of each car engine, and they hear a dog whistle that is too high for people to hear.
• Budgies are very chatty birds that chatter and whistle a lot, and some pet budgies have learnt to say hundreds of words.
• A bottlenose dolphin has its own whistle that works like a name, and its friends call it by copying that whistle.
• The steppe marmot, bobak, stands on its back legs and whistles to warn its family of eagles and foxes.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «whistle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.