grumble

«grumble» in Mova's school dictionary: To complain in a low, unhappy voice — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (grumble, grumbles, grumbled, grumbling); noun (a grumble, grumbles)

meaning for a pupil

1) (verb) To complain in a low, unhappy voice. tree →

2) (noun) A complaint. tree →

3) (verb) To make a low rumbling sound: «My tummy grumbled», «Thunder grumbled». tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories: grumpy characters grumble about everything. In everyday life: children grumble about homework or chores. «Grumbling tummy» = hungry. «Grumble about/at» something.

examples

• Stop grumbling and tidy your room! tree →
• He grumbled about the rain all day. tree →
• My tummy is grumbling — I'm hungry. tree →
• Thunder grumbled in the distance. tree →
• Dad had a grumble about the price of petrol. tree →
• The old man grumbled at the noisy children. tree →
• The Scarecrow began to grumble a bit. tree →

note

Regular verb. Noun: grumbler (someone who grumbles). Similar: moan, whinge (UK, Australia), gripe.

In the corpora

• Grumbling about a noisy party is easier than knocking, but a knock and a kind word usually fix it.
• The Rat chirrups, and up climbs the Otter, shaking himself and grumbling «Greedy beggars!
• His mum suggested half for games and half for saving; he grumbled like a grumpy pirate, but agreed.
• Tank sniffs his hand, grumbles and lies down.
• Mixed feelings are normal; you can grumble a bit, then say welcome.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «grumble» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.