creak
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to make a sharp, harsh, grating, or squeaking sound.
-
to move with creaking.
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
-
to make or cause to make a harsh squeaking sound
-
(intr) to make such sounds while moving
the old car creaked along
noun
Other Word Forms
- creakily adverb
- creakiness noun
- creakingly adverb
- creaky adjective
Etymology
Origin of creak
1275–1325; Middle English creken to croak, apparently back formation from Old English crǣcettan, variant of crācettan to croak
Explanation
To creak is to make a high, groaning sound, like a rusty gate swinging shut. The old, worn floorboards in your house might creak as you walk down the hall. Old doors and gates creak as they open, and tree branches creak as they blow around in very heavy wind. The sound itself is also a creak: "The creak of the front door in the silent house made them jump." In the 14th century, to creak was to "utter a harsh cry," and soon afterward it came to mean the same noise made by an object. Creak is imitative — the word itself sounds like a creak.
Vocabulary lists containing creak
Lend Me Your Ears: Sound Words
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"Fear" and "Violence Hits Home"
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"The Last Word"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She heard music everywhere: a spoon banging against a cooking pot, the honking of geese overheard, the creak and slam of a screen door.
From Salon • Jan. 19, 2026
But leading into the pandemic, Germany’s industrial base started to creak as car production slowed down and government investment stalled under former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026
How many of us have had the experience of hearing an old house creak in the night and wondering if it was something more?
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2024
The metal deck plates on some boats creak and wobble underfoot.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 28, 2023
G’ma murmurs something incoherent, and then Scoob hears a mechanical creak as she shifts in her bed.
From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
