RUMOUR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rumour mean? 

• RUMOUR (noun)
  The noun RUMOUR has 1 sense:

1. gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth

  Familiarity information: RUMOUR used as a noun is very rare.

• RUMOUR (verb)
  The verb RUMOUR has 1 sense:

1. tell or spread rumors

  Familiarity information: RUMOUR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUMOUR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

hearsay; rumor; rumour

Hypernyms ("rumour" is a kind of...):

comment; gossip; scuttlebutt (a report (often malicious) about the behavior of other people)

Derivation:

rumour (tell or spread rumors)

• RUMOUR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they rumour    ... he / she / it rumours   
Past simple: rumoured   
Past participle: rumoured   
-ing form: rumouring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tell or spread rumors

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bruit; rumor; rumour

Context example:

It was rumored that the next president would be a woman

Hypernyms (to "rumour" is one way to...):

dish the dirt; gossip (wag one's tongue; speak about others and reveal secrets or intimacies)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

rumour (gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth)

 Context examples 

She longed to see the Crofts; but when the meeting took place, it was evident that no rumour of the news had yet reached them.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

By the way, there was a rumour that you were about to marry, Tregellis.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No one saw her: they only knew by rumour that such a person was at the Hall; and who or what she was it was difficult to conjecture.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“I heard some rumour of it,” said he.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We had tried to keep it out of the papers, but there was some rumour in the Globe last night.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No rumour of Lucy's marriage had yet reached him:—he knew nothing of what had passed; and the first hours of his visit were consequently spent in hearing and in wondering.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrys being seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston's wedding-cake in their hands: but Mr. Woodhouse would never believe it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He loved to lie in the very centre of five millions of people, with his filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They were shooting at us with one of the small cannon which rumour had said they carried on board.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

As no scandalous, ill-natured rumour had reached her, it was impossible for her to understand much of this strange letter.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)