Groaning
//ˈɡɹoʊnɪŋ// adj, noun, verb
adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A low sound associated with extended suffering, sorrow, and toil.
"From the nearby rail yards came clangings, groanings, chuggings."
- 2 Ellipsis of groaning time (“childbirth, labour”). abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, obsolete
Verb
- 1 present participle and gerund of groan form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
- 1 That groans. not-comparable
- 2 Heavily laden, as if to creak under the strain. figuratively, not-comparable
"We sat down to a groaning table and feasted all evening."
Example
More examples"An old oak is groaning in the storm."
Etymology
From Middle English gronynge (“groaning”), from Old English grānung; equivalent to groan + -ing. Conflated with Middle English gronende, present participle of gronen, from Old English grāniende, present participle of grānian (“to groan”). Analyzable as groan + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "groaning"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.