Moan

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /məʊn/
• US IPA: /moÊŠn/
• Rhymes: -əʊn
• Homophones: mown

Origin

From Middle English mone, mane, man, from Old English *mān ("complaint, lamentation"), from Proto-Germanic *mainō. Inferred from Old English mǣnan ("to complain over, grieve, mourn"). More at mean.

Full definition of moan

Noun

1. a low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure

Verb

1. (transitive, now rare) To complain about; to bemoan, to bewail; to mourn. from 13th c.
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:Much did the Craven seeme to mone his case ….
• PriorYe floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan
  My dear Columbo, dead and gone.
2. (intransitive, now chiefly poetic) To grieve. from 14th c.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To distress (someone); to sadden. 15th-17th c.
• Beaumont and Fletcherwhich infinitely moans me
4. (intransitive) To make a moan or similar sound. from 18th c.
5. (transitive) To say in a moan, or with a moaning voice. from 19th c.‘Please don't leave me,’ he moaned.
6. (intransitive, colloquial, chiefly UK) To complain; to grumble. from 20th c.

Synonyms

Derived terms

• moaner
• moany

Related terms

• bemoan

Anagrams

• Mona, noma, Oman