girn
/ɡɜː(ɹ)n/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make elaborate unnatural and distorted faces as a form of amusement or in a girning competition.
Intransitive verb
noun
A vocalization similar to a cat's purring.
Example Sentences
- "The poor lass was sitting bemoaning herself - "Were it nae for thy girning face, I would knock the big, winnow the corn, and grun the meal.""
- "At seventy-five or eighty I will be like a child myself, frail and cantankerous, a girning, burdensome old devil."
- "And Jim was just girning all the time. I telled him to shut it."
- "A different vocalization, a girn, simiular to a cat's purring, was observed in infants reunited with their mothers..."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: gyrnen