Part 591

I was in jest, And by that offer meant to sound your breast.

Dryden.

I've sounded my Numidians man by man.

Addison.

3. (Med.) To explore, as the bladder or urethra, with a sound; to examine with a sound; also, to examine by auscultation or percussion; as, to sound a patient.

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Sound (?), v. i. To ascertain the depth of water with a sounding line or other device.

I sound as a shipman soundeth in the sea with his plummet to know the depth of sea.

Palsgrave.

Sound, n. [F. sonde. See Sound to fathom.] (Med.) Any elongated instrument or probe, usually metallic, by which cavities of the body are sounded or explored, especially the bladder for stone, or the urethra for a stricture.

Sound, n. [OE. soun, OF. son, sun, F. son, fr. L. sonus akin to Skr. svana sound, svan to sound, and perh. to E. swan. Cf. Assonant, Consonant, Person, Sonata, Sonnet, Sonorous, Swan.] 1. The peceived object occasioned by the impulse or vibration of a material substance affecting the ear; a sensation or perception of the mind received through the ear, and produced by the impulse or vibration of the air or other medium with which the ear is in contact; the effect of an impression made on the organs of hearing by an impulse or vibration of the air caused by a collision of bodies, or by other means; noise; report; as, the sound of a drum; the sound of the human voice; a horrid sound; a charming sound; a sharp, high, or shrill sound.

The warlike sound Of trumpets loud and clarions.

Milton.

2. The occasion of sound; the impulse or vibration which would occasion sound to a percipient if present with unimpaired; hence, the theory of vibrations in elastic media such cause sound; as, a treatise on sound.

In this sense, sounds are spoken of as audible and inaudible.

3. Noise without signification; empty noise; noise and nothing else.

Sense and not sound . . . must be the principle.

Locke.

Sound boarding, boards for holding pugging, placed in partitions of under floors in order to deaden sounds. - - Sound bow, in a series of transverse sections of a bell, that segment against which the clapper strikes, being the part which is most efficacious in producing the sound. See Illust. of Bell. -- Sound post. (Mus.) See Sounding post, under Sounding.

Sound, v. i. [OE. sounen, sownen, OF. soner, suner, F. sonner, from L. sonare. See Sound a noise.] 1. To make a noise; to utter a voice; to make an impulse of the air that shall strike the organs of hearing with a perceptible effect. "And first taught speaking trumpets how to sound." Dryden.

How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues!

Shak.

2. To be conveyed in sound; to be spread or published; to convey intelligence by sound.

From you sounded out the word of the Lord.

1 Thess. i. 8.

3. To make or convey a certain impression, or to have a certain import, when heard; hence, to seem; to appear; as, this reproof sounds harsh; the story sounds like an invention.

Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?

Shak.