Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Creaking |
CreakingAdjective1. Having a rasping or grating sound; "they were alerted by the creaking gate"; "creaky stairs". Noun1. A squeaking sound; "the creak of the floorboards gave him away". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "creaking" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
Synonyms: CreakingSynonyms: creaky (adj), screaky (adj), creak (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Weakness | Frail, fragile, shattery; flimsy, unsubstantial, insubstantial, gimcrack, gingerbread; rickety, creaky, creaking, cranky; craichy; drooping, tottering; Verb:. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Creaking |
| English words defined with "creaking": chirk, clitter, creaky ♦ Fritinancy ♦ Scirrhus, screaky, stridulate, Stridulous ♦ Tin cry. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "creaking": Creaking Doors hang the Longest. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "creaking": stridor. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Living with your folksliving with your folksthe beginning of the enddrab, dead yesterdays shutting out beautiful tomorrowshideous, stumbling footsteps creaking along the misty corridors of timeand in those corridors I see figuresstraaange figuresweeeird figures: Steel 186, Anaconda 74, American Can 138. (Animal Crackers; writing credit: George S. Kaufman; Morrie Ryskind) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Creaking Stairs (1919) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | It was worse than creepy, creaking noises. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Door; creak; creaking; shut. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | And he remembered an evening when he had dismounted from a borrowed creaking bicycle to pray to God in a wood near Malahide. |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | From outside and across the yard came an ancient creaking bleat. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Creaking" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 53.85% of the time. "Creaking" is used about 143 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 53.85% | 77 | 37,929 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 27.27% | 39 | 55,036 |
| Noun (singular) | 18.88% | 27 | 66,962 |
| Total | 100.00% | 143 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "creaking": hinge-creaking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
creaking floor | 6 |
creaking door | 6 |
bedspring creaking during sex | 3 |
creaking knee | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "creaking"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | '吱'吱" (Creaked). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | knirkende lyd (bruit de cuir neuf, sound of creaking leather), knagende lyd (bruit de craquement, creaking sound). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | krassend geluid (bruit de craquement, creaking sound), krakend geluid (bruit de craquement, creaking sound), knetteren (crackle), bruit de cuir neuf (bruit de cuir neuf, sound of creaking leather), bruit de craquement (bruit de craquement, bruit de cuir neuf, creaking sound, sound of creaking leather). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | grincement. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | knarrend (creaky, squeakily). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ήχος τριβής δέρματος (bruit de craquement, creaking sound), το τρίξιμο καινούργιου δέρματος (bruit de cuir neuf, sound of creaking leather). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | nyikorgó (grating, jarring, rasping, squeaky, strident). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | derik (sound), derakan (squeaking). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | cigolio (creak, grind, squeaking), scricchiolio (crackle, creak). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | ぎっくり腰 (fully, left-handed, lumbosacral strain, packing in tightly, slipped disk, strained back, tightly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ぎゅうぎゅう (packing in tightly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | jeestyrnee (grate, squeaking). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eakingcray gìosgan (creaking gnashing), géisg (creaking noise), dìosgan (a creaking or gnashing noise). (various references) škripanje (crunch, scratch), škripa (crackle, creak, grate, gride, jar, scroop, squeak). (various references) crujiente (creaky, crisp, crunchy, crusty, rustling). (various references) gnällig (grumpy, querulous, shrill, strident, whining). (various references) gıcırdayan (gnashing, grating, scratchy, strident). (various references) скрипучий (creaky, grating, rasping, scratchy, squeaky, strident). (various references) gwichlyd (wheezy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | stridulus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "creaking": screaking. (additional references) | |
| |
"Creaking" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cheeking, creakings, creeling, preaking. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "creaking" (pronounced krē"king) |
| 5 | -r ē" k i ng | freaking, reeking, shrieking, streaking, wreaking. |
| 4 | -ē" k i ng | critiquing, eking, leaking, peaking, peeking, seeking, sneaking, speaking, squeaking, tweaking. |
| 3 | -k i ng | aching, antismoking, asking, attacking, backing, backtracking, baking, balking, banking, barking, basking, biking, bilking, blanking, blinking, blocking, bloodsucking, booking, bookmaking, braking, breaking, breathtaking, broking, Brooking, bucking, carjacking, caulking, chalking, checking, choking, chucking, clanking, clicking, cloaking, clucking, cocking, coking, cooking, corking, cornhusking, cracking, cranking, croaking, debunking, decking, disliking, docking, dressmaking, drinking, ducking, duking, earmarking, earthshaking, embarking, evoking, faking, filmmaking, flaking, flanking, flicking, flocking, flunking, forking, forsaking, franking, frolicking, fucking, gawking, glassmaking, groundbreaking, hacking, handshaking, hardworking, harking, Hawking, heartbreaking, hijacking, hiking, hitchhiking, Hocking, homemaking, honking, hooking, hulking, interlocking, invoking, jacking, jaywalking, jerking, joking, junking, kayaking, kicking, knocking, lacking, lawbreaking, lawmaking, licking, liking, linking, locking, looking, lovemaking, Lucking, lurking, making, marking, masking, matchmaking, meatpacking, metalworking, milking, mimicking, mistaking, mocking, moneymaking, moviemaking, mucking, muckraking, multitasking, networking, nitpicking, nonbanking, nonsmoking, overbooking, overlooking, overtaking, packing, painstaking, panicking, papermaking, parking, peacemaking, pecking, perking, picking, piggybacking, planking, plinking, plucking, plunking, poking, politicking, provoking, quaking, quarterbacking, racking, raking, ranking, ransacking, rebuking, reinking, remaking, remarking, restocking, retaking, rethinking, revoking, reworking, risking, rocking, rollicking, sacking, shaking, sharking, shirking, shocking, shrinking, shucking, sinking, sleepwalking, smacking, smirking, smoking, snaking, soaking, socking, spacewalking, spanking, sparking, spiking, squawking, stacking, staking, stalking, steelmaking, sticking, stinking, stockbroking, stocking, stoking, striking, stroking, sucking, sulking, tacking, taking, talking, tanking, tasking, thanking, ticking, tracking, trafficking, trekking, tricking, trucking, tucking, undertaking, undocking, unlocking, unpacking, unthinking, viking, waking, walking, whacking, winking, wisecracking, woodworking, working, wracking, wrecking, yanking. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-g-i-k-n-r" | |
-1 letter: anergic, arcking, carking, racking, recking. | |
-2 letters: arcing, cagier, cakier, caking, canker, caring, carnie, cering, cringe, earing, gainer, incage, nicker, racing, raking, reagin, regain, regina. | |
-3 letters: acing, anger, areic, cager, cairn, caner, ceria, cigar, crake, crane, crank, creak, eking, erica, garni, genic, grace, grain, icker, inker, kiang, nacre, naric, nicer, rance, range, regna, reign. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-g-i-k-n-r" | |
+1 letter: cankering, dackering, lackering, racketing, repacking, reracking, retacking, screaking. | |
+2 letters: bracketing, caretaking, prepacking, restacking, retackling, retracking. | |
+3 letters: caretakings, racewalking, reattacking, rejacketing, repackaging. | |
+4 letters: backbreaking, benchmarking, checkmarking, greenbackism, prepackaging, racewalkings, racketeering, safecracking, sidetracking, wisecracking. | |
+5 letters: benchmarkings, greenbackisms, jackhammering, overpackaging, safecrackings. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
