trilled

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trill

(trĭl)

1. A fluttering or tremulous sound, as that made by certain birds; a warble.

2. Music

a. The rapid alternation of two tones either a whole or a half tone apart.

b. A vibrato.

3. Linguistics

a. A rapid vibration of one speech organ against another, as of the tongue against the alveolar ridge in Spanish rr.

b. A speech sound pronounced with such a vibration.

v. trilled, tril·ling, trills

v.tr.

1. To sound, sing, or play with a trill.

2. To articulate (a sound) with a trill.

v.intr.

To produce or give forth a trill.

[Italian trillo, from trillare, to trill, probably ultimately of imitative origin.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Adj.

trilled - uttered with a trill; "she used rolling r's as in Spanish"

rolling, rolled

pronounceable - capable of being uttered or pronounced; "a pronounceable group of letters"

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She trilled along, and trilled along, and presently a handsome young page, clothed like the rainbow, and as easy and undulatory of movement as a wave, came with something on a golden salver, and, kneeling to present it to her, overdid his graces and lost his balance, and so fell lightly against her knee.

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Everything was in blossom, the nightingales trilled, and their voices reverberated now near, now far away.

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Larks trilled unseen above the velvety green fields and the ice-covered stubble-land; peewits wailed over the low lands and marshes flooded by the pools; cranes and wild geese flew high across the sky uttering their spring calls.

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Yet I love to hear their wailing, their doleful responses, trilled along the woodside; reminding me sometimes of music and singing birds; as if it were the dark and tearful side of music, the regrets and sighs that would fain be sung.