bleating
/ˈbliːtɪŋ/US/ˈblitɪŋ/
bleating is the present participle and gerund of bleat.
Noun
bleating (plural bleatings)
- A noise that bleats.
- And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?1611, The Bible, 1 Samuel 15:14
- Inane or plaintive chatter.
- Both men seemed to enjoy these contests, always laced with the tension caused by constant government bleating about the ABC's left-wing bias.2008, Wayne Errington, Peter Van Onselen, John Winston Howard: The Definitive Biography, page 317
Meaning of bleat
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)
- Of a person, to complain.
- Near-synonyms: kvetch, moan, whinge, whine, holler
- Of a person, to say things of little importance to the listener.
- Near-synonyms: drone on, go on
Forms of bleating
| plural | bleatings |
|---|
Words formed from bleating
Words that rhyme with bleating
Questions about bleating
- What does bleating mean?
- Bleating means a noise that bleats.
- What is bleating the present participle and gerund of?
- Bleating is the present participle and gerund of bleat.
- What part of speech is bleating?
- Bleating is a noun.
- How do you pronounce bleating?
- Bleating is pronounced /ˈbliːtɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of bleating?
- The plural of bleating is bleatings.
Words near bleating in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bleating (page history and authors); bleat (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:
Cite this entry: “bleating.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bleating. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.