Other forms: groans, groaning, groaned
To groan is to let out a long low sound of pain or complaint. You groan getting up on a bad knee, and the whole class groans when the teacher says there is a test on Friday.
The noun works the same way: a groan went round the room. Wood and metal groan too — old floorboards under a heavy step, a ship's timbers, a bridge as a lorry crosses it. There is one lovely fixed use: a table groaning with food is so loaded it might give way. Keep it apart from moan. A groan is a single sound and mostly about pain or dismay; a moan can be a sound but also means complaining on and on. And a bad pun is groan-worthy, which is the word being enjoyed rather than suffered.
1verbgroanTo make a long low sound of pain, unhappiness or complaint.
“He groaned and pulled the blanket over his head.”
synonyms: moan
2verbwoodOf wood, metal or a structure: to make a long low creaking sound under weight.
“The stairs groaned under the weight of the piano.”
3noundismayA long low sound of pain, complaint or dismay.
“There was a groan from the back of the room when he said it.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: moan
Groan comes from Old English grānian, to groan, lament or murmur, and behind it Proto-Germanic grainōną, to howl or weep. The relatives are still audible: German greinen, to whine, Dutch grienen, to sob, and Swedish grina.
Proto-Germanic
*grainōną — to howl; weep
Proto-West Germanic
*grainōn
Old English
grānian — to groan; lament; murmur
Middle English
gronen
English, today
groan
From Middle English gronen, granen, from Old English grānian (“to groan; lament; murmur”), from Proto-West Germanic grainōn, from Proto-Germanic grainōną (“to howl; weep”), from Proto-Germanic grīnaną (“to whine; howl; whimper”). Cognate with Scots grain (“to cry, scream”), Dutch grijnen, grienen (“to cry; sob; blubber”), German Low German grienen (“to whimper; mewl”), German greinen (“to whine; whimper”), Swedish grina (“to howl; weep; laugh”). The noun is from Middle English gron, grone, from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA