whine
/ˈwaɪ̯n/
whine noun: a long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.
Noun
whine (plural whines)
- A long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.
- The 18-year-old [Justin] Bieber can’t quite pull off the “adult” thing just yet: His voice may have dropped a bit since the days of “Baby,” but it still mostly registers as “angelic,” and veers toward a pubescent whine at times.2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2020
- A peevish or self-pitying complaint or criticism.
- I need to have a quick whine about my boss before we start talking about the holiday.
- Eighner, in particular, is infamous for his "what publishers and editors did to poor me" whines.1987 April 4, T.R. Witomski, “witomski responds to readers' response to witomski (letter)”, in Gay Community News, page 6
Verb
whine (third-person singular simple present whines, present participle whining, simple past and past participle whined)
- To utter a high-pitched cry.
- To make a sound resembling such a cry.
- The jet engines whined at take off.
- To complain or protest with a whine (compare whinge) or as if with a whine, i.e. in a peevish or self-pitying way.
- [S]he was one of your ſoft ſpoken, canting, whining hypocrites, who with a truly jeſuitical art, could wreſt evil out of the moſt inoffenſive thought, word, look or action; […]1765, Catherine Jemmat, The Memoirs of Mrs. Catherine Jemmat, Daughter of the Late Admiral Yeo, of Plymouth. Written by Herself, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Printed for the author, at...
- Feel awfully about Scott... I always knew he couldn't think—he never could—but he had a marvelous talent and the thing is to use it—not whine in public.1936 Feb. 15, Ernest Hemingway, letter to Maxwell Perkins
- To move with a whining sound.
- The jet whined into the air.
- The wind whined and moaned through the trees.
- To utter with the sound of a whine.
- The child whined all his complaints.
- Kelly Queen was whining that the boss made him put on his tie.
whine meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
whine in Hindi
- to whine, whimper
- रिरियाना ririyānā
- to whine
- बिलबिलाना bilbilānā
whine in Tamil
- long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound
- சிணுங்கல் ciṇuṅkal
- to utter a whine
- சிணுங்கு ciṇuṅku, மூக்காலழு mūkkālaḻu
- to complain or protest with a whine or as if with a whine
- மூக்காலழு mūkkālaḻu
whine in Urdu
- فریاد کرنا, کراہنا, سسک سسک کر رونا
whine in Bengali
- whine; rant
- প্যাঁচাল pễcal
More languagesFewer languages
- whine in Malayalam
- ചിണുങ്ങുക, മുരളുക, അസന്തോഷം പ്രകടിപ്പിക്കുക
- whine in Kannada
- ದೂರಿಡು, ಊಳಿಡು, ಕಿರುಚು, ಸಂಕಟಪಡು
- whine in Punjabi
- رونا roṇā
- whine in Indonesian
- rengekan, merengek, berderu, menderu
- whine in Persian
- فغان faġân, ناله nâle, نالیدن nâlidan, نق زدن neq zadan
- whine in Vietnamese
- thở dài, rên rỉ, than vãn
Examples of whine in a sentence
- He’s so narcissistic! He whines that he’s ugly and unlikeable just to fish for compliments.
- We heard further scratchings at the door as the dog whined to be let in.
- My little sister always whines until she gets her way.
Forms of whine
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | whines |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | whines |
| present participle | whining |
| past participle | whined |
| past | whined |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | whinest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | whinedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | whineth |
Origin of 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 Proto-Germanic *wainōną (for which see dialectal English ween (“to weep, lament”)).
Words formed from whine
Words that rhyme with whine
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- design
- divine
- combine
- pine
- spline
- swine
- consign
- frankenstein
- nine
- refine
- vine
- benign
- chine
- in line
- intertwine
- recline
- resign
- rine
- undermine
- wine
- affine
- anodyne
- dine
- gold mine
- incline
- malign
- opine
- outshine
- propine
- red line
- shrine
- syne
- tine
- trunk line
- tyne
- atrine
- berine
- bine
- brine
- cline
- confine
- disentwine
- einstein
- equine
- offline
- quine
- repine
- rhine
Questions about whine
- What does whine mean?
- Whine means a long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.
- What is whine in Hindi?
- Whine in Hindi is रिरियाना (ririyānā), बिलबिलाना (bilbilānā). See Whine meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is whine?
- Whine can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce whine?
- Whine is pronounced /ˈwaɪ̯n/.
- What is the plural of whine?
- The plural of whine is whines.
Words near whine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: whine (page history and authors); बिलबिलाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); whine (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); প্যাঁচাল (Bengali) (page history and authors); whine (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whine (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); رونا (Punjabi) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whine.wav.
Cite this entry: “whine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.