Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To cry or sob with soft intermittent sounds; whine.
- intransitive verb To complain.
- intransitive verb To utter in a whimper.
- noun A low, broken, sobbing sound; a whine.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To produce a sound resembling a whimper.
- To cry with a low, whining, broken voice; make a low, complaining sound.
- To tell tales.
- To utter in a low, whining, or crying tone.
- noun A low, peevish, broken cry; a whine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To utter in alow, whining tone.
- intransitive verb To cry with a low, whining, broken voice; to whine; to complain.
- noun A low, whining, broken cry; a low, whining sound, expressive of complaint or grief.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
low intermittent sob. - verb To
cry orsob softly andintermittently . - verb To
say something in a whimpering manner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a complaint uttered in a plaintive whining way
- verb cry weakly or softly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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With a contented feline yawn, Serena curled up for a nap but was suddenly interrupted by a whimper from the floor of the living room.
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Just then one of journalists heard a small whimper from the back of the class.
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a block of it, anyway, when we met two little boys about ten years old -- perhaps one was a little older; one looked about ten, and the other about eleven, or perhaps even twelve, although I think ten would come nearer to it -- and they asked us in a tone between a whine and a cry -- the word whimper more nearly describes it -- if we would buy either
From a Girl's Point of View Lilian Bell
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The whimper is the cowardice and bleating of the Americans like sheep even though it is their policies of Colonialism with its theft and murder that brought on 9/11.
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We didn't think it was -- having won the cold war, we didn't -- we didn't want to see things go out with a bang, we wanted to see them go out with a whimper, which is the way they went out.
The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989-1992 1995
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I thought there might be another JohnnyRussia out there, but the "whimper" characterization pretty much nails you.
Meghan McCain: "Sarah Palin is the only part of the campaign that I won’t comment on publicly." Ann Althouse 2009
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And, just sayin, cuz Mr. Grammar isn't around, don't you mean "whimper"?
Mallrats: Where Trends Go To Die BikeSnobNYC 2008
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Rohan: just out of curiosity, can you name ten times a hero's died a non-heroic "whimper" death in a Marvel comic, pre-Disassembled?
The One Right Way to Kill a Woman | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources 2007
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They brought in well known California Litigator Carlos F. Negrete to take over as lead trial attorney - and Aetna started to seriously "whimper"...
Archive 2006-03-01 Thatsnews 2006
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Dumbledore, you - you will need to tell me exactly - the Fountain of Magical Brethren - what happened? 'he added in a kind of whimper, staring around at the floor, where the remains of the statues of the witch, wizard and centaur now lay scattered.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Rowling, J. K. 2003
sonofgroucho commented on the word whimper
"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
From "The Hollow Men" by TS Eliot.
May 5, 2007
aakaase commented on the word whimper
The word mewl should be added to the list of synonyms.
February 17, 2023