croon

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹuːn/

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• Rhymes: -uːn

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

1. (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, page 249:

     hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise

2. (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.

3. (transitive) To soothe by singing softly.
   • 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, chapter 73:

     The fragment of the childish hymn with which he sung and crooned himself asleep.

4. (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.

• crooner

croon (plural croons)

1. A soft or sentimental hum or song.
   • 2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club‎, 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.”

• Conor, Norco, corno, r'coon