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Mutter vs Hiss - What's the difference?

mutter | hiss | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between mutter and hiss

is that mutter is a repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering while hiss is a high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.

As verbs the difference between mutter and hiss

is that mutter is to utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath while hiss is to make a hissing sound.

mutter

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.
    • The prisoners were docile, and accepted their lot with barely a mutter .
  • (in Indian restaurants) peas

    • Derived terms

    * mutter paneer

    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.

    Synonyms

    * (sense, speak under one's breath) growl, grumble, mumble * (speak incoherently) babble, mumble, murmur, ramble, stutter * (make a low sound) growl, putter, rumble * See also

    hiss

    English

    Noun

    (es)
  • A high-pitched sound made by a snake, cat, escaping steam, etc.
  • An expression of disapproval made to sound like the noise of a snake.

    • Verb

  • To make a hissing sound.
    • As I started to poke it, the snake hissed at me.
    The arrow hissed through the air.
  • * Wordsworth
    • Shod with steel, / We hissed along the polished ice.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 14 , author=John Elkington , title=John Elkington , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=It turns out that the driver of the red Ferrari that caused the crash wasn't, as I first guessed, a youngster, but a 60-year-old. Clearly, he had energy to spare, which was more than could be said about a panel I listened to around the same time as the crash. Indeed, someone hissed in my ear during a First Magazine awards ceremony in London's imposing Marlborough House on 7 December: "What we need is more old white men on the stage."}}
  • To condemn or express contempt for by hissing.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel xxvii. 36
    • The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee.
  • * Shakespeare
    • if the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them
  • To utter with a hissing sound.
  • * Tennyson
    • the long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise