creak
verb /kriːk/
/kriːk/
[intransitive]Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they creak | /kriːk/ /kriːk/ |
| he / she / it creaks | /kriːks/ /kriːks/ |
| past simple creaked | /kriːkt/ /kriːkt/ |
| past participle creaked | /kriːkt/ /kriːkt/ |
| -ing form creaking | /ˈkriːkɪŋ/ /ˈkriːkɪŋ/ |
- to make the sound that a door sometimes makes when you open it or that a wooden floor sometimes makes when you step on it
- She heard a floorboard creak upstairs.
- a creaking bed/gate/stair
- The table creaked and groaned under the weight.
- The timbers creaked as the boat set sail.
- + adj. The door creaked open.
Extra Examples- He stood up, his bones creaking.
- The chair creaked under his weight.
- The door creaked open an inch.
- The ice creaked and groaned underfoot.
- The stairs creaked as I crept down them.
- The stairs creaked as she went up them.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- loudly
- slightly
- slowly
- …
- under
- creak and groan
- creak open
Word OriginMiddle English (as a verb in the sense ‘croak’): imitative.
Idioms
creak under the strain
- if a system or service creaks under the strain, it cannot deal effectively with all the things it is expected to do or provide