Wiktionary

lull

See also: Lull

English

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle English lullen, lollen. Originally, perhaps expressive in origin from la-la-la or lu-lu-lu sounds made in calming a child. Compare Finnish laulaa (“to sing”) and Hiligaynon lala (“to sing a lullaby”).

Cognate with Scots lul, lule, loll (“to lull, put to sleep, howl, caterwaul”), Dutch lollen (“to sing badly, caterwaul”), Dutch lullen (“to chatter, prate, cheat, deceive”), Low German lullen (“to lull”), German lullen (“to lull”), Danish lulle (“to lull, sing to sleep”), Swedish lulla (“to lull”), Icelandic lúlla (“to lull”).

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

lull (plural lulls)

  1. A period of rest or soothing.
  2. A period of reduced activity; a respite.
    • 1959 October, T. W. E. Roche, “Traffic Working at Dover Marine Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 682:
      After this departure there is a lull—one can almost feel the weary station breathing thankfulness!—broken only by the car-sleeper departing at 10.25 from Platform 6 […] . There is normally another lull from 1.45 to 4.30 a.m. till the daily round begins again, […] .
  3. (nautical) A period without waves or wind.
    • 1839, The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1839, page 26:
      […] during the lull, wind shifted to S. E. […]
    • 1875, W. G. Wilson, Report of the Midnapore and Burdwan Cyclone of the 15th and 16th of October 1874, page 74:
      After the lull the wind does not appear to have blown with any great strength […]
    • 2016, David Houghton, Fiona Campbell, Wind Strategy, not paginated:
      The air under each cloud has spent time near the surface, has been slowed and backed by friction—it is a lull.
  4. (surfing) An extended pause between sets of waves.
    • 1992, John Warlaumont, The Noaa Diving Manual‎[1], page 19-19:
      It is advisable to leave the surf zone during the lull between sets of larger waves, waiting outside the surf zone for a lull.
    • 808surfer.com forum (password needed):
      About 2 hours in, a long lull cleared everyone out, and then it started getting a little more consistent and pushing chest ta neck high.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

Verb

edit
 
Holding in one's arms is a common technique to lull into sleep.

lull (third-person singular simple present lulls, present participle lulling, simple past and past participle lulled)

  1. (transitive) To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm
    Synonyms: soothe, quiet
  2. (intransitive) To become gradually calm; to subside; to cease or abate.
    The storm lulled.
  3. (transitive) To give somebody a false sense of security so that an unpleasant situation takes the person by surprise.
    They lulled us into thinking we still had time.
    • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 452:
      […] similarly, the empiriocritics' opposition to religion was a fraud intended to lull the vigilance of the proletariat and lead it by different paths in the same direction as religious mythology.

Synonyms

edit

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

Swedish

edit

Etymology

edit

Compare lulla.

Pronunciation

edit

Adverb

edit

lull (not comparable)

  1. (in "stå lull") to stand without support (of a toddler)

Interjection

edit

lull

  1. Used to lull (a child) to sleep.

Usage notes

edit

Now mostly appears only in lullabies.

Derived terms

edit
edit

See also

edit

References

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=lull&oldid=91729966"