hsst.

n.  a feline greeting.

<“Hsst!” another cat said and she opened her eyes to see a very real pair of cat eyes staring down into hers.  —Anne McCaffrey, Acorna’s Rebels.>

n.  a shooing sound.

<When Henry tried to lift the hem of her dress, however, she had to push him away.  “Hsst!  What are you doing—with your daughter in the next room!”  —Larry Watson, Orchard: A Novel.>

n.  a sound used surreptitiously to get attention; see also hss.

<“Hsst!”  From beneath another stand peered a small, swarthy face; a boy, near to my age.  Grinning, his teeth white against his skin, he beckoned with one grimy hand.  —Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel’s Dart.>

n.  a summons.

<His shovel had struck something hard.  With a sharp “Hsst!” he summoned his companions, and all five men dropped to their knees and began scooping away the sand with their hands.  —Elizabeth Payne, The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.>

n.  an enraged rasp, as in the novel The FarCall Project by RedTurtle.


n.  the electrical hiss of an android or robot malfunctioning, as in The Metallic Touch; see vzzkt.


v.  look; see also hssst.

<Hsst lads here they come.  —Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel.>

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