Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A harsh grating or squeaking sound, or the act of making such a sound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of creak.
  • noun A noise that creaks.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a squeaking sound

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Now and then she would rouse a little, and catch the sound of voices, or be aware that Clover or Elsie stood at the door, crying softly; or that Aunt Izzie, in creaking slippers, was going about the room on tiptoe.

    What Katy Did: A Story 1887

  • The machine shuddered, then swayed as if trying to regain its balance, there was a loud creaking from the metal plates and the entwined canes, and suddenly, as if it were being sucked in by a luminous vortex, it went up making two complete turns, and no sooner had it risen above the walls of the coach-house than it recovered its balance, raised its head like a seagull, and soared like an arrow straight up into the sky.

    José Saramago - Excerpt from "Baltasar and Blimunda" 1998

  • We’re bound to have that, but that’s the area where the creaking is caused by the newness, not by the fact that it’s a defective piece of machinery or there’s something wrong with the machinery.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  •  My experience is that this creaking occurs when the cassette becomes totally dry, particularly the freehub body.

    Technical FAQ with Lennard Zinn: Bike creaking solutions 2010

  • For Wells, an electrical spark that arced across the white page, and for Conrad, each word creaking on the blocks, the woman pale before the moon, her eyes black as tornadoes at sea.

    Unmanned Stephen Oliver

  • High up, silver-winged gulls curved and dipped and called their creaking signals.

    Angel Island Inez Haynes Gillmore 1921

  • The constant 'creaking' noise in the Tok'ra tunnels, as if they are about collapse at any moment.

    Stargate SG-1 Watchathon - 'The Tok'ra' (S02E11) 2009

  • Once the glass started breaking, did you feel the house kind of creaking and swaying?

    CNN Transcript Apr 4, 2006 2006

  • The sound came again, a kind of creaking that reminded Bek of the ship's rigging working against spars and cleats.

    Ilse Witch Brooks, Terry 2000

  • Kriek said the roads had deteriorated steadily, transport services were "creaking" because of old buses, and little progress had been made with electrification.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

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