View synonyms for hushed

hushed

[ huhsht ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

(of speech) deliberately quiet, especially when silence is prudent, respectful, or requested:
Only an occasional whisper could be heard among our hushed voices.
(of a place or situation) having a calm silence, often because those in attendance are being respectful or are waiting to hear something: sitting nervously in the hushed courtroom.
the hushed galleries of a museum;
sitting nervously in the hushed courtroom.

Origin of hushed¹

First recorded in 1600–10; hush ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

In Republican election committees on the Hill, “Barrow” had become a dirty word said only in hushed tones.

Brewers and legal experts speak of him in hushed tones, with equal parts irritation and reverence.

Even the details of an official call for a full inquiry had been hushed up by the British government.

Cummings asks when I inform her in a hushed whisper how nervous I was to discuss these things when the office was so quiet.

At his shows, I remember there being a hushed, breathless anticipation as we waited to see which song Smith would play next.

O lady, mine,Hushed now is every path, and few and dimThe lamps that glimmer through the balconies.Thou sleepest!

A murmur ran through the court-room, quickly hushed by the insistent gavel.

The shadow of a dark cloud had fallen upon the woods, and the voices of the birds were strangely hushed.

Every noise was hushed, and one might have heard a bat fly in the somber corridors of the Louvre.

He reported the results before a learned scientific body, but his colleagues were so scandalized that the matter was hushed up.

Browse