noise
noise
(noiz) noun
1.
a. Sound or a sound that is loud, unpleasant, unexpected, or undesired. b. Sound or a sound of any kind: The only noise was the wind in the pines.
2. A loud outcry or commotion: "Whatever the fate of Eureka, it should have some positive effects, even if modest in comparison to its political noise, for the technological cooperation of European firms" (Foreign Affairs).
3. Physics. A disturbance, especially a random and persistent disturbance, that obscures or reduces the clarity of a signal.
4. Computer Science. Irrelevant or meaningless data generated by a computer along with desired data.
5. Informal. a. A complaint or protest. b. Rumor; talk. c. noises Remarks or actions intended to convey a specific impression or to attract attention: "The U.S. is making appropriately friendly noises to the new Socialist Government" (Flora Lewis).
verb
noised, noising, noises
verb
, transitive
To spread the rumor or report of.
verb
, intransitive
1.
To talk much or volubly.
2.
To be noisy; make noise.
[Middle English, from Old French, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *nausea, discomfort, from Latin nausea, seasickness. See
nausea.]
Synonyms:
noise, din, racket, uproar, pandemonium, hullabaloo, hubbub, clamor, babel. These nouns refer to loud, confused, or disagreeable sound or sounds. Noise is the least specific: deafened by the noise in the subway; the noise of cannon fire. A din is a jumble of loud, usually discordant sounds: The din in the factory ends abruptly when the noon whistle sounds. Racket is loud, distressing noise: Can you imagine the racket made by a line of empty trailer trucks rolling along cobblestone streets? Uproar, pandemonium, and hullabaloo imply disorderly tumult together with loud, bewildering sound: "The evening uproar of the howling monkeys burst out" (W.H. Hudson). "When night came, it brought with it a pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting" (Francis Parkman). The first performance of the iconoclastic composition caused a tremendous hullabaloo in the audience. Hubbub emphasizes turbulent activity, as of those engaged in commerce, and concomitant din: We couldn't hear the starting announcement above the hubbub of bettors, speculators, tipsters, and touts. Clamor is loud, usually sustained noise, as of a public outcry of dissatisfaction: "not in the clamor of the crowded street" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). The debate was interrupted by a clamor of opposition. Babel stresses confusion of vocal sounds arising from simultaneous utterance and random mixture of languages: My outstanding memory of the diplomatic reception is of elegantly dressed guests chattering in a babel of tongues.
Word History:
For those who find that too much noise makes them ill, it will come as no surprise that the word noise possibly can be traced back to the Latin word nausea,"seasickness, feeling of sickness." Our words nausea and noise are doublets, that is, words borrowed in different forms from the same word. Nausea, first recorded probably before 1425, was borrowed directly from Latin. Noise, on the other hand, first recorded around the beginning of the 13th century, came to us through Old French, probably ultimately from Latin, which explains its change in form. The unrecorded change in sense probably took place in Vulgar Latin. Old French nois, descended from Latin nausea, meant "sound, din, uproar, quarrel," all senses that came into Middle English with the word. Noise, however, is an example of how words can change for the better, for a noise can be pleasant as well as unpleasant, as in the sentence "The only noise was the wind in the pines."