rrrrrrr rrrrrr.

n.  the hum of a machine “like something out of science-fiction movie” that dispenses cobalt treatments (Robert Byrne, McGoorty: A Pool Room Hustler).

<The first time they switched on the machine it felt like my ears were all of a sudden stopped up, there was no air, I had no feeling.  I was tied down, so all I could do was lie there and listen to the Rrrrrrr, Rrrrrr, and look at the spot on the machine that the rays come out of, although they are invisible.  —Robert Byrne, McGoorty: A Pool Room Hustler.>

rrrrrrr-RRRRRRR.

n.  the howling siren of a fire engine; see also rrrrrrr.

<One time, Ted was holding out or something.  They wouldn’t give him what he wanted, and he made the statement that if he didn’t get what he was asking for, he said he was going to be a fireman.  Well, Dykes heard about that.  So the first time we played the Red Sox in Chicago, Jimmy Dykes had a siren.  You know, the kind that you crank.  And he had a fireman’s hat on.  When Ted Williams walked up there to hit, Jimmy starts in with that siren: “rrrrrrr-RRRRRRR.”  And he’s got his fireman’s hat on.  And Ted Williams backed out and looked in the dugout and he started laughing.  —David Cataneo, I Remember Ted Williams: Anecdotes and Memories of Baseball’s Splendid Splinter by the Players and People Who Knew Him.>

rrrrrrrmmmmg.

n.  the sound of a hangover, as in Diary by Karawynn Long.

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