Other forms: whining, whines, whined
A whine is a long, thin, high sound that goes on for too long. A dog on the wrong side of a closed door, a mosquito circling your ear at two in the morning, the wind finding a gap in the window frame.
Machines whine as well as animals: a dentist's drill, a jet engine winding up, a fridge on its last legs. Then there is the human use, and it is an insult. To whine is to complain in a drawn-out, nagging voice about something small — stop whining, we are nearly there. British English has whinge for the same thing. Both noun and verb: he let out a whine, she whined all the way home. Watch the spelling — whine is the sound, wine is what you drink, and in most accents they sound identical.
1verbwhineTo make a long, high, unhappy sound.
“The dog whined at the door until someone let him out.”
2verbcomplainTo complain in a drawn-out, irritating way about something unimportant.
“He whined about the seating plan for the entire journey.”
3nouncontinuousA long, high, continuous sound.
“There was a faint whine coming from somewhere under the bonnet.”
4nouncomplaintA complaint made in a nagging, self-pitying voice.
“Her voice dropped into a whine that meant she was tired.”
whine is a high continuous sound.
Whine has always been a thin, cutting sound. Old English hwīnan meant to rush, to whizz, to squeal, and it comes through Proto-Germanic *hwīnaną from a Proto-Indo-European root *ḱwey-, meaning to hiss, whistle, whisper. Icelandic and Danish still have hvína and hvine. Despite how alike they look, it is not related to German weinen, to weep.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱwey- — to hiss, whistle, whisper
Proto-Germanic
*hwīnaną
Proto-West Germanic
*hwīnan
Old English
hwīnan — to rush, to whizz, to squeal, to whine
Middle English
whynen
English, today
whine
From Middle English whynen, hwinen, whinen, from Old English hwīnan (“to rush, to whizz, to squeal, to whine”), from Proto-West Germanic hwīnan, from Proto-Germanic hwīnaną, from Proto-Indo-European ḱwey- (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”). Cognate with Old Norse hvína, whence Icelandic hvína, Norwegian Nynorsk kvina, Swedish vina, and Danish hvine. Despite the strong similarity in sound and meaning, not related with German weinen, Dutch wenen, from wainōną (for which see dialectal ween#Etymology 3 (“to weep, lament”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Sounds & Noises, Pets & Pet Care
First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word