1. lit. Of birds and certain insects. (Formerly used more widely.)
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 76. C[h]yrpynge or claterynge of byrdys.
1563. Hyll, Arte Garden. (1593), 38. Against the chirping of the frogs, which perhaps seem to disquiet the Gardner in the sommer nights.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 42. The chirping of a Wren.
1797. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), I. 252. Its song is only a disagreeable kind of chirping.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 392. The chirping of several Orthoptera seems to have a similar origin … the edges of their hard pergamentaceous wings being … scraped against each other.
2. transf. The making of a sound like this.
1548. Thomas, Ital. Gram., Buffa, the dispisyng blaste of the mouthe that we call shirping.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 297. A kind of whistling or chirping with the lips.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. Pref. 11. The cheerful chirpings of the lyre.
