Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cry or sob with soft intermittent sounds; whine. See Synonyms at cry.
- v. To complain.
- v. To utter in a whimper.
- n. A low, broken, sobbing sound; a whine.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To produce a sound resembling a whimper.
- To cry with a low, whining, broken voice; make a low, complaining sound.
- To tell tales.
- To utter in a low, whining, or crying tone.
- n. A low, peevish, broken cry; a whine.
Wiktionary
- n. A low intermittent sob.
- v. To cry or sob softly and intermittently.
- v. To say something in a whimpering manner.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cry with a low, whining, broken voice; to whine; to complain.
- v. To utter in alow, whining tone.
- n. A low, whining, broken cry; a low, whining sound, expressive of complaint or grief.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a complaint uttered in a plaintive whining way
- v. cry weakly or softly
Etymologies
- Probably imitative. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“With a contented feline yawn, Serena curled up for a nap but was suddenly interrupted by a whimper from the floor of the living room.”
“Just then one of journalists heard a small whimper from the back of the class.”
“a block of it, anyway, when we met two little boys about ten years old -- perhaps one was a little older; one looked about ten, and the other about eleven, or perhaps even twelve, although I think ten would come nearer to it -- and they asked us in a tone between a whine and a cry -- the word whimper more nearly describes it -- if we would buy either”
“The whimper is the cowardice and bleating of the Americans like sheep even though it is their policies of Colonialism with its theft and murder that brought on 9/11.”
“We didn't think it was -- having won the cold war, we didn't -- we didn't want to see things go out with a bang, we wanted to see them go out with a whimper, which is the way they went out.”
The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989-1992
“I thought there might be another JohnnyRussia out there, but the "whimper" characterization pretty much nails you.”
Meghan McCain: "Sarah Palin is the only part of the campaign that I won’t comment on publicly."
“And, just sayin, cuz Mr. Grammar isn't around, don't you mean "whimper"?”
“Rohan: just out of curiosity, can you name ten times a hero's died a non-heroic "whimper" death in a Marvel comic, pre-Disassembled?”
The One Right Way to Kill a Woman | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources
“They brought in well known California Litigator Carlos F. Negrete to take over as lead trial attorney - and Aetna started to seriously "whimper"...”
“Dumbledore, you - you will need to tell me exactly - the Fountain of Magical Brethren - what happened? 'he added in a kind of whimper, staring around at the floor, where the remains of the statues of the witch, wizard and centaur now lay scattered.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘whimper’.
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Talk Talk
Words for Talking
( open list, randomness )squawk, gab, chatter, chitchat, blab, prattle, blather, discuss, hector, plead, cajole, harangue and 200 more...
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SMILE and other emotive verbs
Single verbs that describe expression or emotional reaction. "He __ed" (smiled/gulped/scoffed...)
smile, beam, sneer, scoff, giggle, laugh, snigger, scowl, grin, leer, wince, grimace and 97 more...
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Onomatopoetic
words (seemingly) formed in imitation of a natural sound
plash, guff, woof, splash, crash, pow, crack, bang, whoosh, whizz, whallop, fizz and 116 more...
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Sounds
words that describe sound
atchoo, atishoo, babble, bam, bay, beep, blast, blather, bleat, bleep, blip, bong and 242 more...
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sound (quiet)
words for quiet sounds
( randomness, descriptive )sigh, murmur, whisper, whir, rustle, patter, hum, snap, hiss(sss), crackle, bleat, peep and 185 more...
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Sorrow is better than laughter; for b...
lachrymose, sorrow, melancholic, wail, mournful, sob, misery, wretchedness, anguish, agony, heartbreak, lament and 38 more...
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I am : talking
"These are talking words," I announce. "You mean verbs that can be used for dialogue?" you ask. "That's right!" I agree.
say, speak, ask, declare, query, shout, yell, scream, shriek, squeal, squeak, screech and 81 more...
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Not with a bang...
Whimpering, wailing words...
wheeple, whimper, whinge, whine, mewl, pule, moan, sniffle, snivel, weep, lament, mourn and 16 more...
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sort of sexy
pressure, press, urgency, squeezing, influence, compel, push, tease, thrust, full, drive, urge on and 99 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
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vocabulary
verisimilitude, pendulate, moxie, whimper, nary, stevedore, hubris, prodigious, super-injunction, injunction, lashings, fennel and 202 more...
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lanas's Words
serendipitous, insouciant, charming, sanguine, dear, odd, quaint, small, tremble, blush, flirt, tryst and 248 more...
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Favorite Words
quixotic, assonance, palindrome, plebeian, mezzanine, propinquity, etymology, antihero, intrepid, refractions, lawless, sesquipedalian and 237 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for whimper.
sonofgroucho "This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
From "The Hollow Men" by TS Eliot. May 5, 2007