whrrr.

(also whhrrr.)  n.  throbbing pain, with such quick pulses that the pain becomes a tangible hum.

<[H]is unseen hunter refused to let him turn, driving him with the shadowy presence, with the silent whrrr of pain.  —L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Forever Hero.>

(also whrrrr).  n.  the sound of an automobile engine reluctant to start.

<There amidst the broken glass, Jesse raised up and immediately tried to restart the Regal.  Whrrr... whrrrr...  Finally it came to like with a popping protest.  The once-regal Buick limped off smoking with nineteen holes drilled into it.  —Danny Rolling, The Making of a Serial Killer: The Real Story of the Gainesville Student Murders in the Killer’s Own Words.>

n.  a whirring sound.

<“Whrrr!” whirred the runners.  —Anton Chekhov, “A Joke,” Early Short Stories, 1833-1888.>

n.  the alarm call of the Black-Faced Laughingthrush, as described in A Photographic Guide to the Birds of India and the Indian Subcontinent, Including Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives by Bikram Grewal.


n.  the imagined mechanical buzzing of active eardrums.

<Listen carefully and you can hear the sound of our listening.  Whrrr, whrrr.  —Jim Lehrer, Blue Hearts.>

n.  the sound of “spinning spears,” as described in the novel Into the Land of the Last by Tony Abbott.

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