sssss.

n.  a prefatory whisper.

<“Sssss!”  A whisper prefaced all his remarks.  “I think—yes, by Heaven, I’ll make a saucier of you!”  —Idwal Jones, High Bonnet: A Novel of Epicurean Adventures.>

n.  a sound betraying pent-up hostility or rage.

<You know that sssss sound he’s always makin’?  You know what that is?  That’s cigarettes burning the backs of his legs when he don’t do his chores.  Anybody wonder where his rage comes from?  —Chris Crutcher, Ironman.> <My brother pops his knuckles, his throat moving, a puff of hostile sssss sounds coming out.  —Joy Nicholson, The Tribes of Palos Verdes: A Novel.>

n.  a splash of water.

<He tossed the water across the air.  Sssss!  The water struck something in midair and spilled down it.  —Tony Abbott, Journey to the Volcano Palace.>

n.  a tinkling sound heard at a urinal.

<And then someone comes in and takes a leak: bang of door and zip of zipper and the stream in the urinal, a faint sssss at first, then silence as it tapers down.  —Vince Passaro, Violence, Nudity, Adult Content: A Novel.>

n.  the hiss of a carbonated beverage can being opened; see also psss, shhhhht, sssss.

<Moore pulled open the top of a Bud.  The sssss preceded the tiny bubbles that leapt at him.  —Ken Morris, The Deadly Trade: A Novel.>

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