ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.

n.  a heartbeat like the chugging of a train.

<I hit the ground and rolled.  I came this close to chopping my head off, and my heart’s going ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.  I stood there and let the train go by.  I was scared to death.  —Cliff Williams, One More Train to Ride: The Underground World of Modern American Hoboes.>

n.  the quiet shuffle of someone who doesn’t pick up her feet when she walks.

<I heard a noise.  A very small noise: ch-ch-ch-ch-ch ...  It sounded exactly like my mother shuffling down the hall.  —Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen’s Book of Love.>

n.  the rhythmic chugging of a lawn sprinkler.

<Sprinklers chugged on the lawns, making the ch-ch-ch-ch-ch sound that always made it feel even more like summer.  —Debbie Federici, L.O.S.T.>

n.  the scratching of a caged bird.

<The bird cage was covered with the red shawl, but this did not appear to interfere with the parrot’s nocturnal activities.  Issuing from the cage was a lot of sandpapery scratching and ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ing, as if the bird were busy building something in there.  —Martha Grimes, The Horse You Came In On.>

ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.

n.  the sound of a sampling drum machine’s crash cymbal, as described by Scott Kirkland in The Art of Digital Music: 56 Visionary Artists and Insiders Reveal Their Creative Secrets by David Battino.

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