# creak

Pronunciation: US say "KREEK" /kɹik/; UK

## Verb

1. To make a prolonged, sharp grating or squeaking sound, as when hard surfaces rub against each other.
   - Simple: To make a long, sharp sound when something rubs, bends, or moves slowly.
   - _The gate creaks loudly every time the wind pushes it open._
   - _Old ships creak as their timbers shift in heavy seas._
3. To show signs of strain or decline, as if weakened by age or by demands that are too heavy to bear.
   - Simple: To begin to fail or struggle because of age, pressure, or too much use.
   - _The economy is creaking under the weight of mounting debt._
   - _Aging institutions creak whenever they are forced to face rapid change._
4. To cause something to make a creaking sound.
   - Simple: To make something give off a squeaky, grating sound.
   - _She creaked the chair backward, testing how much weight it could hold._
   - _The sailors creak the rigging as they haul the heavy ropes overhead._

## Noun

2. The sharp grating or squeaking sound made by something that creaks.
   - Simple: The squeaky, grating sound made when something rubs, bends, or moves.
   - _A sudden creak from the attic made everyone freeze._
   - _The creaks of the old house kept her awake all night._

## Origin

From Middle English creken or criken, a metathesis of Old English cearcian ('to chatter, creak, crash, gnash'), which goes back through Proto-West Germanic *krakōn and Proto-Germanic *krakōną to the Proto-Indo-European root *gerh₂- ('to make a sound, cry hoarsely'). It is ultimately of imitative origin, like the sound it describes.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/creak (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).