Verb The old floorboards creaked under our feet. The porch roof creaked with the heavy weight of the snow. Noun the creak of a floorboard
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
If the piece is in good condition, the arm won’t wobble or creak.Washington Post, 3 May 2022 The aging boards still creak as people walk along the porch to the front door. Tom Henderson | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 21 Apr. 2022 Faced with harsh economic and diplomatic wounds, Russia will start to creak and crumble, and before long its citizens will grow weary of his sclerotic, autocratic governance. Jack Devine, WSJ, 2 Mar. 2022 The snow was cold enough to creak and shiver beneath my skis, and the yellow birch forest strained the morning sunshine into silvered lines of shadow.Washington Post, 13 Jan. 2022 Thad Young rose from the bench midway through the second quarter in Milwaukee and spectators in the front row at Fiserv Forum could almost hear his knees creak. Jeff Mcdonald, San Antonio Express-News, 7 Nov. 2021 If using flower pots: Start by elevating the pots on bricks to creak airflow from the bottom.San Antonio Express-News, 11 Oct. 2021 But what will happen when its windows grow dark, the paint starts to crumble, and its boards creak in the winter wind? Chaise Sanders, Country Living, 14 Sep. 2021 But over the coming weeks, many of these workplaces will creak slowly back to life. Emily Anthes, New York Times, 11 June 2021
Noun
In any case, my first guess creak (as in the door creaked rather than the cool, winding creek) actually ended up being a great opener. Erik Kain, Forbes, 3 July 2022 An iceberg splits with the same yawning creak as a tree beginning its fall to earth. Greg Noone, Outside Online, 15 Oct. 2020 Less impressive was our tester’s often brittle, fidgety ride and the occasional creak and groan from the body over particularly nasty Milanese ruts and potholes. Howard Walker, Robb Report, 19 Apr. 2022 The room was silent — no beating hearts, ticking clocks or gnostic ravens — except for the creak of a chair and the soft flutter of a turning page.Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2022 This heated creak, warmed to around 85 degrees Fahrenheit by a natural subterranean spring, puts swimmers in the thick of the North Island's wilderness, from the lush jungle backdrops to a waterfall gently cascading into the creek. Stephanie Vermillion, Travel + Leisure, 20 Nov. 2021 But good sound design requires more than just the ability to re-create the creak of a door hinge or the bustle and clatter of a lunch counter.Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2021 Always there’s noise — the creak of the shifting glacier, the push of the steady wind, the crack of trees snapping in the deep freeze. Laura Manske, Forbes, 17 Sep. 2021 Whenever someone hears a floorboard creak, Michael's in the house. Joey Nolfi, EW.com, 9 Sep. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English creken to croak, of imitative origin