noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person who endlessly whines or complains; a person who finds fault with anything.
2. 2
   (Yiddish) a nagging complaint wordnet
3. 3
   An instance of kvetching; a complaint or whine.
4. 4
   (Yiddish) a constant complainer wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To whine or complain, often needlessly and incessantly.

   "Is this truth I’m delivering up, or is it just plain kvetching? Or is kvetching for people like me a form of truth?"

2. 2
   express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

bellyacherbemoanbitchbleatbleatcomplain

Example

More examples

"He's such a schmuck. He does nothing but kvetch."

Etymology

From Yiddish קוועטשן (kvetshn, literally “to squeeze, pinch”), from Middle High German quetschen (“crush, press”).

Related phrases

split hairs

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