creak

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a squeaking sound

   The creak of the floorboards gave the thief away.

2. 2
   verb

   to make a high-pitched, screeching noise

   The door creaked when I opened it slowly.

3. 3
   noun

   The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking.

   1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados I won't say that I didn't close my eyes for a minute through the whole night, but if I did sleep it was only as a watchdog sleeps. A whisper or a creak of a board would have found me alert.

4. 4
   verb

   To make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances.

   Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up.

From Middle English creken, criken, metathesis of Old English cearcian (“to chatter, creak, crash, gnash”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crash, crack, creak”), from Proto-Germanic *krakōną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to make a sound, cry hoarsely”), ultimately of imitative origin. Compare also Old English crǣccettan, crācettan (“to croak”), Albanian grykë (“throat”). More at crack.

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