Grunting

//ˈɡɹʌntɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sound of grunts.

    "the gruntings of contented pigs"

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of grunt form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Producing grunts. not-comparable

    "Tired with the heat and my walk, I threw myself down on the grass in the shadow of the house, where I lay half-asleep enjoying a quiet rest, when I was startled by an unpleasant clamour, the jarring voice of a woman, who was trying by alternately scolding and using pet names to pacify a litter of grunting pigs on the farm."

Example

More examples

"In the evening I went out on safari again, at night I fell asleep hearing the grunting of the hippos."

Etymology

From Middle English gruntynge (“grunting”); equivalent to grunt + -ing.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.