ch-ch-ch.

n.  a shooing sound, as one might make at a stray animal.

<One of the boy soldiers, seeing her distress, left his place in the line and shooed the beggar woman away.  He made a loud “ch-ch-ch” sound, as if the woman was one of the scruffy dogs slinking bout the garbage pail.  —Scott Landers, Coswell’s Guide to Tambralinga: A Novel.>

n.  a stutter, as described by Michael Faraday in Michael Faraday: Physics and Faith by Colin Archibald Russell.


n.  a vocalized beat to a rhythm one hears in one’s own head.

<Clare was making ch-ch-ch sounds between her teeth, accompanying her mental music.  —Julia Spencer-Fleming, A Fountain Filled With Blood.>

n.  the cicada-like chatter of the Common Cicadabird, as described in A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia by Morten Strange.


n.  the harsh repeated call of the Spot-Winged Parrotlet in flight, as described in A Guide to the Birds of Columbia by Steven L. Hilty.


n.  the sound of a rattlesnake excitedly shaking its tail, as in Baby Rattlesnake by Te Ata.


n.  the sound of maracas or other shakable percussion instruments, as described in Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Drums by Michael Miller; see also sh-sh-sh.


n.  the sound of teeth “chattering uncontrollably,” as in the novel Slightly Married by Mary Balogh.

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