Chorusname/ˈkɔːɹəs/

• 1

  historicalA group of singers and dancers in a theatrical performance or religious festival who commented on the main performance in speech or song.

  • Enter Chorus. / Cut is the branch that might haue growne ful ſtraight, / And burned is Apolloes Laurel bough, / That ſometime grew within this learned man: […]
  • Ya're as good as a Chorus my lord.
• 2

  historicalA song performed by the singers of such a group.

chorusnoun/ˈkɔːɹəs/

• 1

  historicalA group of singers and dancers in a theatrical performance or religious festival who commented on the main performance in speech or song.

  • [W]ee would that the voice and dialect of the propheteſſe Pythia, reſembling the ſpeech of a Chorus in a tragedie from a ſcaffold, ſhould pronounce her anſwers not in ſimple, plaine, and triviall termes, without any grace to ſet them out, but with Poeticall magnificence of high and ſtately verſes, diſguiſed as it were with metaphors and figurative phraſes, yea, and that which more is, with ſound of flute and hautboies: […]
• 2

  historicalA song performed by the singers of such a group.

  • And the Apocalyps of Saint Iohn is the majeſtick image of a high and ſtately Tragedy, ſhutting up and intermingling her ſolemn Scenes and Acts with a ſevenfold Chorus of halleluja's and harping ſymphonies: […]
• 3

  historicalentertainmentlifestyletheaterAn actor who reads the prologue and epilogue of a play, and sometimes also acts as a commentator or narrator; also, a portion of a play read by this actor.

  • Enter Chorus. / Cut is the branch that might haue growne ful ſtraight, / And burned is Apolloes Laurel bough, / That ſometime grew within this learned man: […]
  • Ya're as good as a Chorus my lord.
• 4

  A group of singers performing together; a choir; specifically, such a group singing together in a musical, an opera, etc., as distinct from the soloists; an ensemble.

  • The performance of the chorus was awe-inspiring and exhilarating.
  • They are shadowed by a robed chorus of Beckettian sages--Homer (Joseph Grimm), Hesiod (Gary Kelley), Herodotos (Daniel Parker) and Thucydides (Michael Rivkin)--given to Joseph Campbell-like pronouncements on the power of myth.
• 5

  A group of people in a performance who recite together.

• 6

  An instance of singing by a group of people.

  • But once out of sight of those fearful precincts, the psalm was forgotten, and again broke, loud, clear, and silvery, the joyous chorus.
• 7

  A group of angels, or of types of angels like seraphim.

• 8

  A group of people, animals, or inanimate objects who make sounds together.

  • a chorus of crickets    a chorus of whiners
  • More than just an appliance, the air conditioner is a memento mori. […] As summer proceeds, listen to the chorus of machines humming in the windows, outside the houses, atop the office buildings.

chorusverb/ˈkɔːɹəs/

• 1

  To sing (a song), express (a sentiment), or recite or say (words) in chorus.

  • In the middle of the little woody bay, or rather basin, which received the scanty waters of the stream, an armed sloop lay at anchor, and he heard the din of license and carousal on board,—the hasty oath—the hearty laugh—and the boisterous song, chorussed by a score of rough voices, which made the bay re-echo.
  • Shortly afterwards, all England was engaged in chorussing his favourite ditty— […]
• 2

  To express concurrence with (something said by another person); to echo.

  • "Yes," said the king; "Come, Hop-Frog, lend us your assistance. Characters, my fine fellow; we stand in need of characters—all of us—ha! ha! ha!" and as this was seriously meant for a joke, his laugh was chorused by the seven.
• 3

  rareTo provide (a song) with a chorus or refrain.

  • Let ev'ry Song be Choruſt with his Name. / And Muſick pay her Tribute to his Fame.
• 4

  To sing the chorus or refrain of a song.

  • 1785, James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D, Wednesday, 8th September, 1773, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6018/pg6018-images.html Malcolm sung an Erse song, the chorus of which was 'Hatyin foam foam eri', with words of his own. […] the boatmen and Mr M’Queen chorused, and all went well.
• 5

  To sing, express, or say in, or as if in, unison.

  • Then they all chorus'd upon me—Such a character as Miſs Harlowe's! cry'd one—A lady of ſo much generoſity and good ſenſe! another— […]
  • Six State Commissioners of Education gloomily chorused about retrenchments, pay cuts and shut-down schools in Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Washington, Massachusetts and Maine.
• 6

  To echo in unison another person's words.

  • Then she shouted: "Viva our Lady of Grace," and the crowd chorused.
• 7

  Of animals: to make cries or sounds together.

  • Then the cocks began to crow in the town beneath the hill, and the birds chorused in the fields, and a pale yellow poppy colored the east.
  • 1998, Italo Calvino, The Path to the Spiders' Nests, translated by Archibald Colquhoun, revised by Martin McLaughlin, Hopewell, NJ: The Ecco Press, 1998, Chapter Two, p. 51, The hens are now sleeping in rows on their perches in the coops, and the frogs are out of the water and chorusing away along the bed of the whole torrent, from source to mouth.