rrrrr.

n.  the trill of a star in the sky, singing to “followers stumbling through the night” (Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Seeing Stone).


n.  the warning call of a mother partridge.

<His mother’s warning “rrrrr” (danger) did not always keep the others from a risky path or a doubtful food, but obedience seemed natural to him.  —Ernest Seton, Wild Animals I Have Known.>

n.  the whirring of a pencil sharpener, as described in the novel An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender.

RRRRR.

n.  the whistling of the wind at night, like “the noise of the celebration of [one’s] wedding night” (Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories).

rrrrr.

v.  to burn, as a “ribbon of fire” blazes along a river in Impasse of the Angels: Scenes from a Moroccan Space of Memory by Stefania Pandolfo.


v.  to err.

<I said it wasn’t [pronounced] “air” it was “rrrr,” to rrrrr is human, people kept saying it wrong.  —Eric Wilson, “The Axe, the Axe, the Axe,” Prize Stories 1985: O’Henry Awards.>

rrrrr rrrrr.

n.  the blaring of a police siren, as in Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery by David A. Adler; see also RRRRRR, rrrrrr.

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