English

Noun

rumour ‎(countable and uncountable, plural rumours)

1. Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland spelling of rumor
   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 16

     Rumour had it (though not proved) that she descended from the house of the lords Talbot de Malahide

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 1/1/2, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     There were rumours, new rumours every morning, delightful and outrageous rumours, so that the lumps in the porridge were swallowed without comment and the fish-cakes were eaten without contumely.

2. (obsolete) A prolonged, indistinct noise.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, JC II. iv. 18:

     Prithee, listen well; / I heard a bustling rumour like a fray, / And the wind brings it from the Capitol.