Library / English Dictionary

MOAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An utterance expressing pain or disapproval

Synonyms:

groan; moan

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

utterance; vocalization (the use of uttered sounds for auditory communication)

Derivation:

moan (indicate pain, discomfort, or displeasure)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Indicate pain, discomfort, or displeasure

Example:

The ancient door soughed when opened

Synonyms:

groan; moan

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

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

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frames:

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

Sentence examples:

You can hear animals moan in the meadows

The meadows moan with animals

Derivation:

moan (an utterance expressing pain or disapproval)

moaner (a person given to excessive complaints and crying and whining)

Credits

 Context examples: 

They cry aloud in their sleep at night. In their sleep they moan and groan with the pain of their weariness. And in the day, as they stagger along the trail, they cry under their breaths.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When he moaned and sobbed, it was with the pain of living that was of old the pain of his wild fathers, and the fear and mystery of the cold and dark that was to them fear and mystery.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“Now, which is better, to till God's earth, to have happy faces round one's knee, and to love and be loved, or to sit forever moaning over one's own soul, like a mother over a sick babe?”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The ambient sound field is dominated by the sound of earthquakes, both near and far, as well as distinct moans of baleen whales, and the clamor of a category 4 typhoon that just happened to pass overhead.

(Seven miles deep, the ocean is still a noisy place, NOAA)

Look at me, marked until I die with his high displeasure; and moan and groan for what you made him!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The child gave a sharp cry, and lay there moaning.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He moaned so, and looked so weak, wild, and lost, I feared he was dying; and I might not even speak to him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I thought you were asleep, so I just made a little private moan for my one beauty.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A low moaning sound was coming from somewhere over our heads.

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

Then he seized an iron bar and beat the old man till he moaned and entreated him to stop, when he would give him great riches.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)