grumbling

grumbling is the present participle and gerund of grumble.

Noun

grumbling (plural grumblings)

complaining
- the grumblings of a bad-tempered man
- For having submitted my ears to Acutilius for several days (and I think you know his style), I should scarcely have regarded it as a hardship to write you a letter describing his grumblings after patiently enduring the bore (and it was rather a bore, I can tell you) of hearing them.1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 2
rumbling

grumble (third-person singular simple present grumbles, present participle grumbling, simple past and past participle grumbled)

(intransitive) To make a low, growling or rumbling noise, like a hungry stomach or certain animals.
- The distant thunder grumbles.
(intransitive) To complain; to murmur or mutter with discontent; to make ill-natured complaints in a low voice and a surly manner.
- He grumbles about the food constantly, but has yet to learn to cook.
(transitive) To utter in a grumbling fashion.
- He grumbled that there was no grain "in the country" and that people were talking instead of working to provide it.2001, Harry Willcox Pfanz, Gettysburg — the first day

What does grumbling mean?: Grumbling means complaining.
What is grumbling the present participle and gerund of?: Grumbling is the present participle and gerund of grumble.
What part of speech is grumbling?: Grumbling is a noun.
What is the plural of grumbling?: The plural of grumbling is grumblings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: grumbling (page history and authors); grumble (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “grumbling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grumbling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.