Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HUM, v.i. [G. hummen; D. hommelen.]

1. To utter the sound of bees; to buzz.
2. To make an inarticulate buzzing sound. The cloudy messenger turns me his back, / And hums. Shak.
3. To pause in speaking, and make an audible noise like the humming of bees. He hummed and hawed. Hudibras.
4. To make a dull, heavy noise like a drone. Still humming on their drowsy course they took. Pope.
5. To applaud. [Obs.]