Creak
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking.
- 2 a squeaking sound wordnet
- 1 To make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances. intransitive
"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."
- 2 make a high-pitched, screeching noise wordnet
- 3 To produce a creaking sound with. transitive
"Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry."
- 4 To suffer from strain or old age. figuratively, intransitive
"Fascinating though this high-minded re-reading was, certain crucial joints of the play creaked a good deal under the strain."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"The floorboards creak a bit when you walk across them."
Etymology
From Middle English creken, criken, metathesis of Old English cearcian (“to chatter, creak, crash, gnash”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crash, crack, creak”), from Proto-Germanic *krakōną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to make a sound, cry hoarsely”), ultimately of imitative origin. Compare also Old English crǣccettan, crācettan (“to croak”), Albanian grykë (“throat”). More at crack.
Related phrases
More for "creak"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.