• (RP) IPA: /məʊn/
• (America) IPA: /moʊn/

moan (plural moans)

1. a low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure

• French: gémissement
• German: Stöhnen
• Italian: gemito
• Portuguese: gemido, lamento
• Russian: стон
• Spanish: gemido, quejido

moan (moans, present participle moaning; past and past participle moaned)

1. (transitive, now rare) To complain about; to bemoan, to bewail; to mourn. [from 13th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     Much did the Craven seeme to mone his case […].

   • Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan / My dear Columbo, dead and gone.

2. (intransitive, now chiefly poetic) To grieve. [from 14th c.]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To distress (someone); to sadden. [15th-17th c.]
   • 1626 January 22 (licensing date)​, John Fletcher [et al.], “The Faire Maide of the Inne”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, OCLC 3083972 ↗, Act 5, scene 1:

     which infinitely moans me

4. (intransitive) To make a moan or similar sound. [from 18th c.]
5. (transitive) To say in a moan, or with a moaning voice. [from 19th c.]

   ‘Please don't leave me,’ he moaned.

6. (intransitive, colloquial) To complain; to grumble. [from 20th c.]

• See also Thesaurus:complain

• bemoan

• French: gémir, mugir
• German: stöhnen
• Italian: gemere
• Portuguese: gemer
• Russian: стона́ть
• Spanish: gemir

• French: se plaindre, geindre
• Italian: lamentarsi
• Portuguese: queixar-se, reclamar
• Spanish: quejar