ˈsingult Now arch.
[ad. L. singultus a sob, a speech broken by sobs.]
1. A sob.
In the two quotations from Spenser, as well as in Tears Muses 232 and Colin Clout 168, the word is misprinted singulf in the original editions.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. xi. 12 There an huge heape of singultes did oppresse His strugling soule. 1596 Ibid. v. vi. 13 With deepe sighes, and singults few. 1616 Browne Brit. Past. ii. i, When her teares were stopt from eyther eye, Her singults, blubbrings, seem'd to make them flye Out at her oyster-mouth. 1621 Quarles Esther xv, Thus her plain'full mone, Commixt with bitter singults, she exprest. 1748 W. Melmoth Fitzosborne Lett. (1763) 291 Whiles frequent singults check'd his faltring tale. a 1756 G. West Educ. in Dodsley's Coll. Poems (1782) IV. 30 Heart-thrilling cries, with sobs and singults sore. 1820 Scott Monast. xxix, Had he foreseen it was to cost you these tears and singults. |
† 2. = singultus 1. Obs.—1
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 366 The singult, or hicket, which is a convulsive motion of the stomach. |