creak

Etymology

From Middle English creken, criken, metathesis of Old English cearcian (“to chatter, creak, crash, gnash”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn (“to crash, crack, creak”), from Proto-Germanic *krakōną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to make a sound, cry hoarsely”), ultimately of imitative origin. Compare also Old English crǣccettan, crācettan (“to croak”), Albanian grykë (“throat”). More at crack.

noun

1. The sound produced by anything that creaks; a creaking.

verb

1. (intransitive) 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. 1856, Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), Gustave Flaubert (author), Madame Bovary, Part III, Chapter 10
   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. 1901, W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw
2. (transitive) To produce a creaking sound with.
   I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses, The drivers creaking the seats of the baroque hearses a. 1941, Theodore Roethke, "On the Road to Woodlawn", in Open House (1941)
3. (intransitive, figurative) To 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. 2002, Stanley Wells, Shakespeare Survey, volume 39, page 205
   The whole basis of feudalism, especially in the more intensively farmed champion arable landscapes of the Midlands, was starting to creak. 2007, Francis Pryor, Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History, page 232