Whimper

//ˈwɪmpə(ɹ)// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A low intermittent sob.
  2. 2
    a complaint uttered in a plaintive whining way wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To cry or sob softly and intermittently.

    "The lonely puppy began to whimper as soon as we left the room."

  2. 2
    cry weakly or softly wordnet
  3. 3
    To cry with a low, whining, broken voice; to whine; to complain.

    "Was ther euer yet prechers, but ther wer gainſayers? that ſpurned? that winſt? that whimpered againſt him?"

  4. 4
    To say something in a whimpering manner.

    "“Master, please don’t punish me!” he whimpered."

Synonyms

All synonyms
mewlwailwhinegripebawlbemoan

Antonyms

All antonyms
bang

Example

More examples

"This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper."

Etymology

From dialectal whimp (“to whine”) + -er (frequentative suffix). Compare German wimmern (“to whimper, whine”).

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