Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound: Describes a sound that is rough, scratchy, and irritating to hear, often due to hoarseness or friction.

2. Noun:

   • The act of uttering in an irritated tone: The action of speaking with a harsh, grating, or annoyed voice.
   • A harsh, grating sound: The sound itself that is characterized by roughness.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • He spoke with a rasping cough that echoed in the quiet room.
  • The door opened with a rasping screech of rusty hinges.

• Noun:

  • Her reply was a rasping of pure annoyance.
  • The constant rasping of the file against the metal was unbearable.

Advanced Usage

• Descriptive Use: Often used to describe voices affected by illness, emotion, or age, or sounds produced by friction between rough surfaces.
  • The old record player produced a rasping melody from the scratched vinyl.

Variants and Related Words

• Rasp (verb/noun): To scrape or utter with a harsh sound; the harsh sound itself.
  • He tried to rasp out a few words.
• Raspy (adjective): Synonymous with 'rasping', meaning hoarse or grating.
  • She had a raspy voice after cheering at the concert.

Synonyms

• Adjective: Grating, harsh, scratchy, hoarse, gravelly, strident.
• Noun: Grating, scraping, scratch.

Related Phrases

• To speak in a rasping tone: To talk with a harsh, irritated voice.
  • The teacher spoke in a rasping tone to quiet the class.

Adjective

1. unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound
   • a gravelly voice

Noun

1. uttering in an irritated tone