Moan

//məʊn// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure.

    "let out a deep moan"

  2. 2
    an utterance expressing pain or disapproval wordnet
  3. 3
    A lament or sorrow. obsolete

    "to make one's moan"

Verb
  1. 1
    To complain about; to bemoan, to bewail; to mourn. UK, transitive

    "Much did the Craven seeme to mone his case […]."

  2. 2
    indicate pain, discomfort, or displeasure wordnet
  3. 3
    To grieve. intransitive, poetic
  4. 4
    To make a moan or similar sound. intransitive

    "She moaned with pleasure and squirmed with delight from receiving oral sex."

  5. 5
    To say in a moan, or with a moaning voice. transitive

    "‘Please don't leave me,’ he moaned."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    To complain; to grumble. colloquial, intransitive
  2. 7
    To distress (someone); to sadden. obsolete, transitive

    "which infinitely moans me"

Synonyms

All synonyms
groanaggrievebesorrowdarkenengrievegrieve

Example

More examples

"I am tired of hearing you moan and groan."

Etymology

From Middle English mone, mane, mān, (also as mene), from Old English *mān, *mǣn (“complaint; lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *mainu, from Proto-Germanic *mainō (“opinion; mind”). Cognate with Old Frisian mēne (“opinion”), Old High German meina (“opinion”). Old English *mān, *mǣn is inferred from Old English mǣnan (“to complain over; grieve; mourn”). More at mean.

Related phrases

bitch and moanmake moanmoaning Minniemoaning dovepiss and moan

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