Forms: see WHISTLE v.; also 6 whislyng. [f. as prec. + -ING2.] That whistles, in various senses.
1. Of inanimate things: see WHISTLE v. 3.
Whistling arrow, a toy arrow formerly in use, with a hollow head so constructed as to make a whistling sound in flying. Whistling buoy, a buoy fitted with a whistle which is automatically sounded by the movement of the waves.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 170. Men myghte his brydel heere Gynglen in a whistlynge wynd.
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. 586. The whistlyng ayre among the braunches rores.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 86. To dance our ringlets to the whistling Winde.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Lucan, I. 240. Shrill cornets, whistling fifes.
1667. Flavel, Saint Indeed (1673), 71. To a guilty Conscience, the whistling leaves are Drums and Trumpets.
a. 1718. Prior, Henry & Emma, 333. Winged Deaths in whistling Arrows fly.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 802. The whistling ball Sent through the trav’ller’s temples! Ibid., VI. 941. The … haughty world … sweeps him with her whistling silks.
1842. Tennyson, Sir Galahad, 59. Blessed forms in whistling storms Fly o’er waste fens.
1880. Cassell’s Fam. Mag., 124/2. The Courtenay automatic whistling buoy.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xviii. The whistling strokes of the scourge.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, viii. The We’re Here crawled in on half-flood, and the whistling-buoy moaned and mourned behind her.
b. transf. of a time or place: Characterized by or full of whistling.
1623. Wodroephe, Marrow Fr. Tongue, 475/2. A Whistling March, that makes the Plough Man blithe.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 167. Our … journey … through whistling dales; in … which we were … weather-beaten with a raging storme.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scot., III. 227. The English Chapel [in Glasgow] … the common people,… on account of its organ, stigmatize it with the contemptuous epithet of the whistling kirk.
2. Of a sound: Of the nature of a whistle; such as is produced by a whistle or shrill pipe.
1662. Boyle, Exam. Hobbes, iii. 15. The external Air rushing in with a whistling noise at the … Orifice.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 363. The u Gallicum, or whistling u,… cannot be denied to be a distinct simple vowel.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, IV. 119. The Wind, blowing into the Cavities of these Husks, makes a very sonorous whistling Noise.
1831. Scott, Ct. Robt., ii. They … beheld the barbarian … brandish high his formidable weapon, the whistling sound of which made the old arch ring.
1851. W. H. Walshe, Dis. Lungs, 97. Sibilant rhonchus … two varieties, the short and the prolonged, or the clicking and the whistling.
3. Of a person: see WHISTLE v. 1, 4.
1630. B. Jonson, New Inn, I. i. I must ha’ … whistling boyes to bring my haruest home.
1721. Kelly, Sc. Prov., 33. A crooning Cow, a crowing Hen, and a whistling Maid boded never luck to a House.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xii. 250. Jackey … was the most thoughtless, whistling, sauntering fellow.
1802. Wordsw., Poems, To Toussaint l’Ouverture, 2. Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough Within thy hearing.
1850. N. & Q., 1st Ser. II. 164/1. A whistling woman and a crowing hen Is neither fit for God nor men.
b. That keeps a ‘whistling-shop’ (see prec. 4).
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xlv. ‘Any more?’ said the whistling gentleman.
4. Of a bird or other animal: see WHISTLE v. 2.
Chiefly as a descriptive epithet of particular species, as in whistling dick, a name for various species of thrush, esp. of the Australian genus Colluricincla; whistling duck, various species of duck, as the golden-eye and the widgeon (cf. WHISTLER 2 a); whistling eagle or hawk, a small eagle or large hawk (Haliastur sphenurus) of Australia and New Caledonia; whistling field bird or w. f. plover, the grey plover (Squatarola helvetica); whistling fish, = whistle-fish (see WHISTLE sb. 4); whistling marmot = WHISTLER 2 b; whistling moth (see quot.); whistling plover, swan (see PLOVER 2, SWAN sb. 1); whistling thrush, a local name for the song-thrush.
1848. Gould, Birds Australia, II. pl. 77. Colluricincla Selbii,… *Whistling Dick, of the Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. 69. *Whistling Ducks are somewhat less than our Common Duck…. In flying, their Wings make a pretty sort of loud whistling Noise.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, vii. (1864), 165. Flocks of whistling ducks (Anas Autumnalis), parrots, and … macaws … flew over.
1819. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., XI. II. 467. [The Alwargrim Plover] is called in America the Large *Whistling Field Bird, from its note, which is very shrill.
1872. Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 243. Whistling Field Plover. Bull-head. Ox-eye.
1763. in Pennant, Brit. Zool. (1776), I. 143. The seals … are seen searching for their prey near shore, where the *whistling fish, wraws, and polacks resort.
1907. Nature, 19 Sept., 516/1. The *‘whistling (stridulating) moths’ of the genus Hecatesia, which emit sounds like the call of a Cicada.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 109. Pluvialis Flavovirescens, the green Plover, & *whistling Plover.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 145. We … found … a great many of the whistling plover, the same with ours.
1785. Pennant, Arctic Zool., II. 542. The *Whistling Swan carries its neck quite erect.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), II. 319. The hooper, or whistling swan … is an inhabitant of the northern regions.
1896. R. B. Sharpe, Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit., II. 246. The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) and the Whistling Swan (C. americanus).
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 100. Boscas, aliis Anas Fistularis,… the Whewer, or *Whistling Widgeon.
Hence Whistlingly adv., with a whistle or whistling.
1851. H. Melville, Whale, II. xlii. 285. Stubb whistlingly gathers up the coil of the warp.
1891. Illustr. Sporting & Dram. News, Christmas No., 36/2. A wind got up, suddenly, whistlingly.
