bzzz.

n.  the sound of a dentist’s drill; see also bzzz-bzzz-bzzz.

<[The drill] is the most feared item in the dentist’s repertoire of tools: that bzzz, that little bzzz.  —S. Ratneshwar, David Glen Mick, and Cynthia Huffman, Why of Consumption: Contemporary Perspectives on Consumer Motives, Goals and Desires.>

n.  the sound of a propeller plane.

<I caught sight of a little private plane below me.  I could hear the ‘bzzz’ of its propeller—the only sound.  —George Plimpton, The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair: And Other Excursions and Observations.>

n.  the sound of a rattlesnake’s tail.

<A rattlesnake slithered out of sight beneath a car with a warning bzzz of its tail.  —Jennifer Armstrong, Fire-us #2: The Keepers of the Flame.>

n.  the sound of an airport metal detector’s alarm.

<The sergeant passed the hand held metal detector over me from head to toe.  Bzzz!  Bzzz!  I took off my bracelet—Bzzz!—and then my watch.  Bzzz!  I removed my belt with its metal buckle.  Bzzz!  I looked imploringly at the guard.  “It must be the brass buttons on my dress!” I said.  —Barbara Kirwin, The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent: The Criminal Mind on Trial—Tales of a Forensic Psychologist.>

n.  the sound of an alarm clock’s buzzer.

<[H]e picked the clock up and heaved it across the room.  On hitting the bathroom door the alarm went off, a loud and arrogant BZZZ.  —Thomas Pynchon, V.>

- END OF PREVIEW - To read more, see the "Search Inside" feature at Amazon.com