bleat
/ˈbliːt/
bleat noun: the characteristic cry of a sheep or a goat.
Noun
bleat (plural bleats)
- The characteristic cry of a sheep or a goat.
Verb
bleat (third-person singular simple present bleats, present participle bleating, simple past and past participle bleated)
- Of a sheep, goat, or calf: to make its characteristic cry; of a human, to mimic this sound.
- Near-synonym: baa (sheep and goat)
- In the year 1633, the Bridget Nuns, near Xanthus, behaved like sheep, jumping about and bleating continuously.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 99
- Of a person, to complain.
- Near-synonyms: kvetch, moan, whinge, whine, holler
- The last thing we need is to hear them bleating to us about organizational problems.
- Of a person, to say things of little importance to the listener.
- Near-synonyms: drone on, go on
- She came skipping to me just now, clapping her little hands and bleating about how very, very happy she was, dear Mrs Travers. The silly young geezer. I nearly conked her one with my trowel.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
bleat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
bleat in Hindi
- bleat, baa, bleating
- में mẽ
- to bleat
- मिमियाना mimiyānā
bleat in Tamil
- கதறுதல்
bleat in Urdu
- بھیڑ کی طرح چیخنا, ڈکرانا, ممیانا
bleat in Bengali
- ভেড়া, ছাগলের মতো ডাক দেওয়া, ঘ্যানঘ্যান করা
More languagesFewer languages
- bleat in Malayalam
- മുനങ്ങുക, ആടു കരയുക, ആടിനെപ്പോലെ കരയുക, ആടിനെപ്പോലെ ശബ്ദിക്കുക
- bleat in Kannada
- ಚಕ್ಕರಿಸು, ಅರಚು
- bleat in Tagalog
- mee, me, mumee
- bleat in Arabic
- ثُغَاء ṯuḡāʔ, مَأْمَأَة maʔmaʔa, مَأْمَأَ maʔmaʔa, ثَغَا ṯaḡā
- bleat in Malay
- embek, mengembek
- bleat in Indonesian
- embik, embek, mengembik
Examples of bleat in a sentence
- I can't have, for instance, Heracles come bleating to me at some future date, asking please can he have his bow back, and getting all stroppy when I refuse to tell him where it is.2016, James Lovegrove, Age of Heroes, Solaris, →ISBN:
- That I should find it weird to see a 41-year-old influencer bleating about her “bleph”.2025 October 11, Jo Ellison, “The forever 35 face of fashion”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd....
Synonyms of bleat
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of bleat
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bleats |
| alternative form | blate |
| alternative form | blait |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bleats |
| present participle | bleating |
| past participle | bleated |
| past | bleated |
Origin of bleat
From Middle English bleten, from Old English blǣtan (“to bleat”), from Proto-West Germanic *blātijan, from Proto-Germanic *blētijaną (“to bleat”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to howl, cry, bleat”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to make a loud noise”). Cognate with Scots blete, bleit, West Frisian bâlte, blaaien, blêtsje (“to bleat”), Dutch blaten (“to bleat”), Low German bleten (“to bleat”), German blaßen, blässen (“to bleat”).
Words formed from bleat
Words that rhyme with bleat
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- entreat
- fleet
- retreat
- treat
- complete
- conceit
- repeat
- concrete
- discrete
- bittersweet
- suite
- cheat
- cleat
- deceit
- greet
- unseat
- compete
- defeat
- delete
- effete
- elite
- escheat
- indiscrete
- leet
- pleat
- skeet
- sleet
- accrete
- beet
- gleet
- ifrit
- incomplete
- overeat
- overheat
- petite
- replete
- superheat
- teat
- tweet
- wheat
- yeet
- Bereshit
- Bow Street
- Crete
- discreet
- downbeat
- jeet
- keet
Questions about bleat
- What does bleat mean?
- Bleat means the characteristic cry of a sheep or a goat.
- What is bleat in Hindi?
- Bleat in Hindi is में (mẽ), मिमियाना (mimiyānā). See Bleat meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use bleat in a sentence?
- I can't have, for instance, Heracles come bleating to me at some future date, asking please can he have his bow back, and getting all stroppy when I refuse to tell him where it is.
- What part of speech is bleat?
- Bleat can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bleat?
- Bleat is pronounced /ˈbliːt/.
- What is the plural of bleat?
- The plural of bleat is bleats.
Words near bleat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bleat (page history and authors); मिमियाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); bleat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bleat (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bleat (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bleat (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); bleat (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bleat.wav.
Cite this entry: “bleat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bleat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.