croon

EnglishEdit

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From Middle Dutch kronen (“to groan, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *kre-, from Proto-Indo-European *gerH- (“to cry hoarsely”).

Recorded crooning from a person.
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croon (third-person singular simple present croons, present participle crooning, simple past and past participle crooned)

(transitive, intransitive) To hum or sing softly or in a sentimental manner.
He was crooning a Frank Sinatra song.

He was crooning, but I couldn't make out what the song was.
- 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IX, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], OCLC 3163777, page 249:
  
  hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise
(transitive, intransitive) To say softly or gently
- 2020, Sydney Ember, Sanders drives himself to the polls., New York Times:
  "Nice seeing you both," a woman at the check-in said. "Hey, I love you," another crooned.
(transitive) To soothe by singing softly.
- 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], OCLC 633494058, chapter 73:
  The fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep.
(Scotland) To make a continuous hollow moan, as cattle do when in pain.
- 1813, James Hogg, The Queen's Wake:
  Even the dull cattle crooned and gazed.

to hum or sing softly or in a sentimental manner

to say softly or gently

to soothe by singing softly

to make a continuous hollow moan

croon (plural croons)

A soft or sentimental hum or song.
- 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 6 August 2020:
  And really, Michael Jackson is a more fitting aspiration for the similarly sexless would-be-former teen heartthrob, who’s compared himself to the late King Of Pop (perhaps a bit prematurely) on several occasions and sings in a Jackson-like croon over a sample of “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going” on Believe’s “Die In Your Arms.”

soft or sentimental hum or song