grunt

«grunt» in Mova's school dictionary: to make a short low sound in your throat, like a pig — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (grunt, grunts, grunted, grunting); noun (a grunt, grunts)

meaning for a pupil

1) To grunt is to make a short low sound in your throat, like a pig. tree →

2) A grunt is that sound. tree →

3) People grunt when lifting something heavy, or to answer without words when they are tired or grumpy. tree →

4) (slang) A grunt is a low-ranking soldier or worker who does hard, boring jobs. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories, a grunt shows a character is grumpy, tired or straining. Pigs grunt, and so do tennis players hitting hard. «Grunt work» means boring hard work.

examples

• The pig grunted in the mud. tree →
• Dad grunted as he lifted the sofa. tree →
• My brother just grunts when I ask about school. tree →
• The tennis player grunted with every shot. tree →
• He gave a grunt of agreement. tree →
• I got stuck with all the grunt work. tree →
• But the ugly old Fairy only grunted and made no answer. tree →

note

Past: grunted. Grunting instead of answering can seem rude.

In the corpora

• Company,» he grunts, and turns his back and disappears.
• Badger: «a stripy head, with high shoulders behind it» peered out of a hedge, grunted «H'm!
• In Calgary, Lorcan, 16, stops talking, stays in his room and grunts at dinner.
• Cartoon cavemen who grunt and ride dinosaurs are pure fantasy: dinosaurs died out about 66 million years before the first humans.

Trees and pragmatics

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