whine
/ˈwaɪ̯n/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.28 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.
noun
A peevish or self-pitying complaint or criticism.
Example Sentences
- "The 18-year-old [Justin] Bieber can’t quite pull off the “adult” thing just yet: His voice may have dropped a bit since the days of “Baby,” but it still mostly registers as “angelic,” and veers toward a pubescent whine at times."
- "I need to have a quick whine about my boss before we start talking about the holiday."
- "Eighner, in particular, is infamous for his "what publishers and editors did to poor me" whines."
- "The jet engines whined at take off."
- "[S]he was one of your ſoft ſpoken, canting, whining hypocrites, who with a truly jeſuitical art, could wreſt evil out of the moſt inoffenſive thought, word, look or action; […]"
- "Feel awfully about Scott... I always knew he couldn't think—he never could—but he had a marvelous talent and the thing is to use it—not whine in public."
Etymology
From Middle English whynen, hwinen, whinen, from Old English hwīnan (“to rush, to whizz, to squeal, to whine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwīnan, from Proto-Germanic *hwīnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwey- (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”). Cognate with Old Norse hvína, whence Icelandic hvína, Norwegian Nynorsk kvina, Swedish vina, and Danish hvine. Despite the strong similarity in sound and meaning, not related with German weinen, Dutch wenen, from Proto-Germanic *wainōną (for which see dialectal English ween (“to weep, lament”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ḱwey-, whynen, hwīnan, *hwīnan, *hwīnaną
Usage
Inflected Forms
whines (plural)
whines (present, singular)
whining (participle, present)
whined (participle, past)
whined (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
whined (first person, past)
whinest (archaic, present)
whined (past, second person)
whinedst (archaic, past)
whineth (archaic, present)