fssst.

n.  the swishing of a sharp blade.

<“To be a leader you must have a rosary in your right hand,” and here he imitated a benignly mumbling lama at prayer.  “And in your left hand you must have a sharp knife.  Fssst!  If someone is no good, you must be able to chop him off!”  Here he demonstrated a violent beheading.  —Caroline Humphrey, Shamans and Elders: Experience, Knowledge, and Power Among the Daur Mongols.>

fssst fssst.

n.  the squeak of wet galoshes; see also pfft pfft.

<Her rubber slippers also make a funny hissing noise, fssst, fssst.  She’s just washed her feet and the rubber slippers’ pores have become saturated with water.  —Betool Khedairi, A Sky So Close: A Novel.>

fsst.

n.  a hiss made to frighten a cat.

<I heard something that sounded like a stone that was loose and was being moved by a cat or something.  I went “Fsst!” to scare the cat.  —Maria Catedra, This World, Other Worlds: Sickness, Suicide, Death, and the Afterlife Among the Vaqueiros de Alzada of Spain.>

n.  a variation of psst, a sound used to attract attention; see also psss, pssst, psst, ssss, ssstt.  <Fsst, come over here.>.


n.  the sizzling sound of electrical sparks, as in The Public Burning  by Robert Coover.

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