moan

«moan» in Mova's school dictionary: To make a long low sound because of pain or sadness — 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 (moan, moans, moaned, moaning); noun (a moan, moans)

meaning for a pupil

1) To make a long low sound because of pain or sadness. tree →

2) (informal, especially UK, Australia) To complain in an annoying way about small things: Stop moaning about your homework! tree →

3) Noun: a low sound of pain, or the wind's low sound. tree →

4) Noun (informal): a complaint: to have a moan. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories a moan tells you a character is hurt, sad or scared, or that the wind howls in a spooky house. In everyday UK talk «Stop moaning» means «Stop complaining». A «moaner» or «whinger» complains a lot.

examples

• The injured player moaned in pain. tree →
• The wind moaned through the trees. tree →
• Stop moaning — it's only one page of homework! tree →
• Dad likes a good moan about the traffic. tree →
• We heard a low moan from the cellar. tree →
• She moaned that the bus was late again. tree →
• My brother moans whenever it's his turn to wash up. tree →

note

Homophone: mown (cut grass). Close words: groan (similar sound), whine, whinge (UK/Australia), complain. «Moan» about complaining is informal.

In the corpora

• «You're no fun,» he moaned.
• A friend can be fun and still have faults, like swearing or moaning; you don't have to copy their faults.
• «Bare long,» moans Ibby (London slang: a massive pain).
• «It's like prison, man,» Jordan-Lee moans at school.
• Ancient people moaned like us too.

Trees and pragmatics

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