Verb

(en verb)

To utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.

You could hear the students mutter as they were served sodden spaghetti, yet again, in the cafeteria.

The beggar muttered words of thanks, as passersby dropped coins in his cup.

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=June 28 , author=Jamie Jackson , title=Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=This set – the set of Rosol's life – was studded with aces and menacing ground-strokes that left Nadal an impotent spectator often muttering to himself and at the umpire regarding a perceived misdemeanour by his opponent.}}

To speak softly and incoherently, or with imperfect articulations.

The asylum inmate muttered some doggerel about chains and pains to himself, over and over.

* Dryden

Meantime your filthy foreigner will stare, / And mutter to himself.

To make a sound with a low, rumbling noise.

April could hear the delivery van's engine muttering in the driveway.

* Alexander Pope

Thick lightnings flash, the muttering thunder rolls.

Verb

(es)

To make a low, continuous, humming or sibilant sound, like that made by bees with their wings.

* Longfellow

Like a wasp it buzzed , and stung him.

* 1922 , , Fantasia of the Unconscious , ch. 2:

So that now the universe has escaped from the pin which was pushed through it, like an impaled fly vainly buzzing , we can hope also to escape.

# (by extension) To utter a murmuring sound; to speak with a low, humming voice.

#* Shakespeare

However these disturbers of our peace / Buzz in the people's ears.

# (chiefly, of an insect) To fly while making such a sound.

#* 1897 , , ch. 20:

The flies, lethargic with the autumn, were beginning to buzz into the room.

To whisper; to communicate, as tales, in an undertone; to spread, as a report, by whispers or secretly.

* Shakespeare

I will buzz abroad such prophecies / That Edward shall be fearful of his life.

To talk to incessantly or confidentially in a low humming voice.

(aviation) To fly at high speed and at a very low altitude over a specified area, as to make a surprise pass.

* 2013 , The Economist, Stopping asteroid strikes: Defenders of the Earth

an asteroid a mere 15-20 metres across exploded with the force of a medium-sized atom bomb over Chelyabinsk, in Russia, and another, much larger one buzzed Earth a few hours later.

To cut the hair in a close-cropped military style, or buzzcut.

* 2012 , Ellen Hartman, Out of Bounds (page 130)

Deacon said, “You used to beg me to let you buzz your hair when you were little.” “And then I grew up and realized how awful you looked when you buzzed yours.”