What Does Hushed Mean?

As a transitive verb, 'hushed' means made silent or quiet. It could mean to calm; or to soothe. It is also popularly used to mean keeping something from public knowledge; or to suppress mention of. In this sense it is often used with the word 'up'; as in 'the potential scandal was deliberately hushed up'. It could also mean to mollify or to put at rest.

As an intransitive verb it is used to mean to be or to become silent. It could even mean to be or to become still. As an adjective, silent or quiet is an archaic use of the term hushed.

Synonyms for the same include muted, subdued, and quiet.

The word is likely to be a back-formation from the Middle English word husht, meaning silent, of imitative origin.

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