v. Obs. Also 5 quysse, 6 whisse, whyss(e, wiss(e, Sc. quheiss. [Echoic. Cf. Icel. hvissa to whizz.]
1. intr. To make a sibilant sound of some kind; to whistle, hiss, whizz or wheeze; trans. to whistle to. Hence † Whissing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
a. 1400. Parlt. 3 Ages, 234. He [sc. falconer] quysses thaym [sc. hawks] and quotes thaym, quyppeys full lowde.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 385. The whyssinge of a burninge forge.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Auster, Sibilus Austri, the whissynge of the winde.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, T iij b. Like the sea which sodenlye with whissing noyse dooth moue, when with a little blast of winde it is but toucht.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. i. 24 (Qo. 1). Whissing lungs.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., ccliii. Their fled Troops, met whissing in the Bound, Gave their owne Terror, in a Treble Sound.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, II. iv. 49. Such a Nose is worth a double tost in a pot of Ale, and will make it whisse as well as a hot steele.
1847. Halliwell, Whiss, to whistle.
2. trans. ? To strike with something pliant, to flog: cf. quot. c. 1590 in sb. below.
c. 1540. J. Heywood, Wit & Folly (Percy Soc.), 2. Some whysse hym, some whype hym.
Hence † Whiss sb., a blow with something pliant, a lash.
c. 1590. J. Stewart, Poems (S.T.S.), II. 235. Tak thair ane quheiss ȝit vith my skoullon clout.
