[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of the verb WHISPER.
1. The action of speaking in a whisper; speech without vibration of the vocal cords; whispered talk or conversation.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., John vii. 12. Hwisprunge micle [Vulg. murmur multum] wæs … in ðreote.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 2785. Whan sche heryth wispring eny-where.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 159 b. Noyse of whisperyng with the lyppes.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 284. Is whispering nothing? Is leaning Cheeke to Cheeke?
1740. Richardson, Pamela (1785), II. 375. I was much less concerned … at the Gazings and Whisperings of the Ladies and Gentlemen.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxviii. After a little whispering with the other young ladies.
1863. A. M. Bell, Princ. Speech, 164. This whispering of the Voice Articulations is a remarkable characteristic of Gaelic, Welsh, and Irish speakers.
2. The action of saying or reporting something quietly or secretly; suggestion or insinuation (by whispered speech); faint mention or rumor; esp. (obs. or arch.) malicious insinuation, secret slander or detraction, backbiting.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 868. That place … filde ful of tydynges Other lovde or of wisprynges.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 279. Now hit ys made an hous … of whisperyng and rownyng.
1526. Tindale, 2 Cor. xii. 20. I feare lest there be founde amonge you … whisperynges, swellynges and debate.
1546. W. Thomas, Peregryne, Wks. 1774, I. 115. He had herd a whysperyng amonge the souldieres how the sayde Earle … had gotten promes of ayde.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Rich. III., 53. Sekynge after his compaygnie and yet not once herynge any noyse or whysperynge of theim.
a. 1586. [see WHISPERINGNESS].
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. i. 79. Foule whisp’rings are abroad.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist., IV. 207. By false reports, whispering and calumny.
1828–43. Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), IV. 33. Rumours of war, and whisperings of the intrigues and conspiracies.
3. fig. a. Soft rustling sound resembling or suggesting whispered speech.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 564. The river … making a … gentle whispering.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxvii. The garden … was silent, but for the whispering of the leaves,… and the plashing of the fountains.
1849. T. Woolner, My Beautiful Lady, Night, viii. The … hushed whispering of the vines.
1904. Fitchett, Commander of ‘Hirondelle,’ xx. 230. Her voice fell into the key of the mystical whispering of the sea.
b. Mental suggestion or intimation figured as whispered speech.
1672. Sir T. Browne, Lett. to Friend, § 2. Some secret sense or intimation thereof by dreams, thoughtful whisperings, [etc.].
1811. Shelley, Poems fr. St. Irvyne, I. iii. Conscience in low, noiseless whispering spoke.
1848. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, xv. The whisperings of her womanly nature … caused her to shrink from any unmaidenly action.
4. attrib.: whispering-closet, satirically for a private consulting-room; whispering-gallery, a gallery or dome, usually of circular or elliptical plan, in which a whisper or other faint sound at some point can be heard by reflexion at a distant point where the direct sound is inaudible; whispering-hole, a hole through which one whispers; whispering-office, nickname for a confessional; † whispering-place, = whispering-gallery; † whispering-room, a room for private interviews or consultations; † whispering-trumpet (obs.), whispering-tube = SPEAKING-TUBE 1.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 80. The Judge’s *whispering-closet: from which all who have any interest in the discovery of the truth are carefully excluded.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 31 July 1654. The Minster is indeede a noble fabric. The *whispering gallery is rare, being thro’ a passage of 25 yards, in a many-angled cloister.
1812. Examiner, 27 Dec., 827/2. He might expect to hear a sermon in the whispering gallery in St. Paul’s.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. I. 518. Speaks … As through a Trunk, or *whisp’ring hole.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 457, ¶ 3. Peter Hush has a whispering Hole in most of the great Coffee-houses about Town.
1704. Swift, T. Tub, iv. The erecting of a *Whispering-Office.
1635. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), I. 180. This *whispering place … is a vault or gallery.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., iii. § 13 (1716), 97. The voice of Prophecies is like that of Whispering-places: They who are near or at a little distance hear nothing, those at the farthest extremity will understand all.
1746. Phil. Trans., XLIV. 219. As for whispering Places, the best I ever saw was that at Gloucester: But in Italy … I saw, in an Inn, a Room with a square Vault, where whispering, you could easily hear it at the opposite Corner.
1623. Webster, Duchess Malfi, I. ii. A Vizor and a Masque are *whispering roomes That were neu’r built for goodnesse. Ibid., III. ii. His breast was fill’d with all perfection, And yet it seem’d a priuate whispring roome It made so little noyse of ’t.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xvi. (Roxb.), 75/2. In the Base of this square, runing into the next, is a *Whispering Trumpet, a long streight hollow pipe.
1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat., vi. (ed. 3), 65. The voices … became thin and low, as though they reached me through a *whispering tube.
