▪ I. chirping, vbl. n.
(ˈtʃɜːpɪŋ)
[f. chirp v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb chirp.
1. lit. Of birds and certain insects. (Formerly used more widely.)
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 76 C[h]yrpynge or claterynge of byrdys. 1563 T. Hill Arte Garden. (1593) 38 Against the chirping of the frogs, which perhaps seem to disquiet the Gardner in the sommer nights. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 42 The chirping of a Wren. 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 252 Its song is only a disagreeable kind of chirping. 1841–71 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. 392 The chirping of several Orthoptera seems to have a similar origin..the edges of their hard pergamentaceous wings being..scraped against each other. |
2. transf. The making of a sound like this.
| 1548 Thomas Ital. Gram., Buffa, the dispisyng blaste of the mouthe that we call shirping. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 297 A kind of whistling or chirping with the lips. 1850 Blackie æschylus I. Pref. 11 The cheerful chirpings of the lyre. |
▪ II. ˈchirping, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. That chirps.
| 1611 Cotgr., Gazouillard, singing, chirping, or warbling, as a bird. 1714 Gay Trivia i. 148 Chirping Sparrows. a 1763 Shenstone Odes (1765) 182 Now chirping crickets raise their tinkling voice. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. ii. (1879) 26 Each time the horse put its foot on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise was produced. |
2. Merry, hilarious, lively. (Cf. chirpy.)
| 1616 B. Jonson Masque Christmas, [He] has been in his days a chirping boy, and a kill-pot. c 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Chirping-merry, very pleasant over a Glass of good Liquor. 1725 New Cant. Dict. 1840 Thackeray Catherine viii, Drink..made him chirping and merry. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xli, A chirping, healthy..fellow. |
3. Producing merriment, cheering.
[The original notion here is not quite clear: perhaps the word was properly a vbl. n. used attrib., ‘chirping-cup’ being = cup (productive) of chirping. In later use the phrase is merely traditional, without analysis.]
| c 1645 Howell Lett. 5 July §5 (1650) 162 The Fannian Law..allows a chirping cup to satiat, not to surfet. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 412 To take a chirping cup: Bibere ad hilaritatem. 1710 W. King Love x. 1480 Bacchus with his chirping cup. 1732 Pope Ep. Bathurst 358 Sir Balaam..takes his chirping pint and cracks his jokes. a 1734 North Lives III. 224 Sir Dudley North loved a chirping glass in an evening. 1801 Month. Mag. XII. 224 That stimulation, which succeeds to a seasoned dinner and a chirping pint. |
Hence chirpingly adv.
| 1650 A. B. Mutat. Polemo 15 To be chirpingly drunk, and sing away sorrow. |