shushing

verb

present participle of shush
as in silencing
to stop the noise or speech of shushed the crying baby

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shushing Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim went to 3-0 for the week with a crowd-shushing rally from 2 down to a 2-and-1 victory over Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark. — ABC News, 26 Sep. 2026 Trae Young won Madison Square Garden’s undying enmity in the 2021 playoffs for the Atlanta Hawks, punctuating game-breaking shots by shushing the crowd or bowing to the fans and waving goodbye. — Leah Asmelash, CNN Money, 9 June 2026 Wine country with kids in tow doesn’t have to mean a stressful afternoon of shushing and screen time. — Lauren Schuster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 June 2026 Levy sat on the floor, watching like a proud father and shushing whisperers. — Jane Bua, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026 Top sleep aid for kids This extremely popular sound machine uses an authentic human voice to calm babies to sleep with a calming, shushing sound. — Bestreviews, Mercury News, 26 Jan. 2026 Kempe then put a gloved finger to his lips, shushing the sixth consecutive sellout crowd in Anaheim. — Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan. 2026 After once rising from her seat to scold a man recording the broadcast on his phone to shushing in-studio viewers during an interview with Zohran Mamdani, Whoopi Goldberg just wrote another chapter in her comical relationship with The View's studio audience. — Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 6 Jan. 2026 The snow was shushing off the roof of the garage and down on the driveway. — Alan Gionet, CBS News, 3 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shushing
  1. silencing
  2. hushing
  3. quieting
  4. muting
  5. settling
Verb
  • Williams departed with a right hamstring injury midway through the fourth quarter, silencing a drenched crowd of 58,914 at Soldier Field.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Those findings should not be reduced to one group silencing the other.
    — Liam Julian, Baltimore Sun, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of silencing
Verb
  • Nelson remembers hushing her foster children back to sleep that night and calling 911, anxious for an end to those sleepless nights.
    — Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 2 Sep. 2026
  • If you’re used to traditional decluttering strategies that focus on sorting and purging, house hushing might feel strange.
    — Mary Cornetta, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 July 2026
Definition of hushing
Verb
  • Patrick Mahomes finished the job by scrambling up the middle, simultaneously giving the Chiefs an early lead and quieting some doubts about his reconstructed ACL and LCL.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Use the words that suit the tone of the piece, and that might mean quieting your inner voice, or the voice of your mother.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of quieting
Verb
  • Among several solutions such as time limits and muting notifications during certain hours, the changes include giving teens the option to choose to view a non-algorithmic social media feed that isn’t personalized.
    — Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2026
  • During the third act, in a cunning effect, when anyone picks up a phone, the screen’s contents are displayed on a wall as the lights fade, muting the friends onstage.
    — Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 9 July 2026
Definition of muting
Verb
  • Likewise, tipping can make settling up uncomfortable when dining out with friends.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 4 Oct. 2026
  • The company has faced a wave of lawsuits about child safety and data security, most recently settling a major federal case involving a group of state attorneys general for nearly $17 billion.
    — Caleigh Keating, CNBC, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of settling

Browse Nearby Words

shushes
shushing
shut
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Shushing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shushing. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of discreet

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All