creak

noun

1. 1

   The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking.

   I won't say that I didn't close my eyes for a minute through the whole night, but if I did sleep it was only as a watchdog sleeps. A whisper or a creak of a board would have found me alert.

verb

1. 1

   To make a prolonged sharp grating or squeaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances.

   Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up.

   He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey's paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.

2. 2

   To produce a creaking sound with.

   Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry.

   I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses, The drivers creaking the seats of the baroque hearses, […]

3. 3

   figurativeTo suffer from strain or old age.

   Fascinating though this high-minded re-reading was, certain crucial joints of the play creaked a good deal under the strain.

   The whole basis of feudalism, especially in the more intensively farmed champion arable landscapes of the Midlands, was starting to creak.

Forms

plural

creaks

past tense

creaked

past participle

creaked

present participle

creaking

third person singular

creaks