The weary plowman leaves the task of day, And,
trudging homeward, whistles on the way. --Gay.
2. To make a shrill sound with a wind or steam instrument,
somewhat like that made with the lips; to blow a sharp,
shrill tone.
3. To sound shrill, or like a pipe; to make a sharp, shrill
sound; as, a bullet whistles through the air.
The wild winds whistle, and the billows roar.
--Pope.
2. To send, signal, or call by a whistle.
He chanced to miss his dog; we stood still till he
had whistled him up. --Addison.
{To whistle off}.
(a) To dismiss by a whistle; -- a term in hawking. ``AS a
long-winged hawk when he is first whistled off the
fist, mounts aloft.'' --Burton.
(b) Hence, in general, to turn loose; to abandon; to
dismiss.
I 'ld whistle her off, and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune. --Shak.
Note: ``A hawk seems to have been usually sent off in this
way, against the wind when sent in search of prey; with
or down the wind, when turned loose, and abandoned.''
--Nares.
Might we but hear The folded flocks, penned in their
wattled cotes, . . . Or whistle from the lodge.
--Milton.
The countryman could not forbear smiling, . . . and
by that means lost his whistle. --Spectator.
They fear his whistle, and forsake the seas.
--Dryden.
2. The shrill sound made by wind passing among trees or
through crevices, or that made by bullet, or the like,
passing rapidly through the air; the shrill noise (much
used as a signal, etc.) made by steam or gas escaping
through a small orifice, or impinging against the edge of
a metallic bell or cup.
3. An instrument in which gas or steam forced into a cavity,
or against a thin edge, produces a sound more or less like
that made by one who whistles through the compressed lips;
as, a child's whistle; a boatswain's whistle; a steam
whistle (see {Steam whistle}, under {Steam}).
The bells she jingled, and the whistle blew. --Pope.
4. The mouth and throat; -- so called as being the organs of
whistling. [Colloq.]
So was her jolly whistle well ywet. --Chaucer.
Let's drink the other cup to wet our whistles.
--Walton.
{Whistle duck} (Zo["o]l.), the American golden-eye.