different between moan vs creak

English

Etymology

From Middle English mone, mane, m?n, (also as mene), from Old English *m?n, *m?n (“complaint; lamentation”), from Proto-Germanic *main? (“opinion; mind”). Cognate with Old Frisian m?ne (“opinion”), Old High German meina (“opinion”). Old English *m?n, *m?n is inferred from Old English m?nan (“to complain over; grieve; mourn”). More at mean.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mo?n/
• Rhymes: -??n
• Homophone: mown

Noun

moan (plural moans)

1. a low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure

Translations

Verb

moan (third-person singular simple present moans, present participle moaning, simple past and past participle moaned)

1. (transitive, now rare) To complain about; to bemoan, to bewail; to mourn. [from 13th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     Much did the Craven seeme to mone his case […].

   • 1708, Matthew Prior, the Turtle and the Sparrow

     Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan / My dear Columbo, dead and gone.

2. (intransitive, now chiefly poetic) To grieve. [from 14th c.]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To distress (someone); to sadden. [15th-17th c.]

   • which infinitely moans me

4. (intransitive) To make a moan or similar sound. [from 18th c.]
5. (transitive) To say in a moan, or with a moaning voice. [from 19th c.]

   ‘Please don't leave me,’ he moaned.

6. (intransitive, colloquial) To complain; to grumble. [from 20th c.]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:complain

Derived terms

• moaner
• moany

Related terms

• bemoan

Translations

See also

• murmur
• protest
• lament

Further reading

• moan in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• moan in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Amon, Mano, Mona, NOMA, Noam, Oman, Onam, mano, maon, mona, noma

Breton

Alternative forms

• moen

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *mu?n (“beautiful”) (compare Welsh mwyn (“mild, gentle”)), from Proto-Celtic *moinis (“treasure, precious object”) (compare Irish maoin (“property, riches”)), from Proto-Indo-European *moynis (compare Latin m?nis (“obliging”), Old English m?ne (“common”)), from *mey- (“to change”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mwã?n/

Adjective

moan

1. thin, slender

   Synonym: tanav

   Antonym: tev

Mutation

Finnish

Noun

moan

1. Genitive singular form of moa.

Anagrams

• Oman, oman

English

Alternative forms

• crik (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English creken, criken, metathesis of Old English cearcian (“to chatter, creak, crash, gnash”), from Proto-West Germanic *krak?n (“to crash, crack, creak”), related to Proto-Germanic *krak?n?, ultimately of imitative origin.

Compare also Old English cr?ccettan, cr?cettan (“to croak”), Albanian grykë (“throat”). More at crack.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kr?k, IPA^(key): /k?i?k/
• Homophone: creek
• Rhymes: -i?k

Noun

creak (plural creaks)

1. The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking.

Translations

Verb

creak (third-person singular simple present creaks, present participle creaking, simple past and past participle creaked)

1. (intransitive) To make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances.
   • 1856, Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), Gustave Flaubert (author), Madame Bovary, Part III, Chapter 10:

     Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up.

   • 1901, W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw:

     He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey's paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.

2. (transitive) To produce a creaking sound with.
   • a. 1941, Theodore Roethke, "On the Road to Woodlawn", in Open House (1941)

     I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses,

     The drivers creaking the seats of the baroque hearses

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To suffer from strain or old age.
   • 2002, Stanley Wells, Shakespeare Survey (volume 39, page 205)

     Fascinating though this high-minded re-reading was, certain crucial joints of the play creaked a good deal under the strain.

   • 2007, Francis Pryor, Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History (page 232)

     The whole basis of feudalism, especially in the more intensively farmed champion arable landscapes of the Midlands, was starting to creak.

Derived terms

• creaky

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Acker, Crake, Kacer, acker, crake