moan

Etymology

From Middle English mone, mane, mān, (also as mene), from Old English *mān, *mǣn (“complaint; lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *mainu, from Proto-Germanic *mainō (“opinion; mind”). Cognate with Old Frisian mēne (“opinion”), Old High German meina (“opinion”). Old English *mān, *mǣn is inferred from Old English mǣnan (“to complain over; grieve; mourn”). More at mean.

noun

1. a low, mournful cry of pain, sorrow or pleasure
   let out a deep moan
   We heard the distant moan of a stag in pain.

verb

1. (transitive, now rare) To complain about; to bemoan, to bewail; to mourn.
   1708, Matthew Prior, the Turtle and the Sparrow Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan / My dear Columbo, dead and gone.
2. (intransitive, now chiefly poetic) To grieve.
3. (intransitive) To make a moan or similar sound.
   She moaned with pleasure and squirmed with delight from receiving oral sex.
4. (transitive) To say in a moan, or with a moaning voice.
   ‘Please don't leave me,’ he moaned.
5. (intransitive, colloquial) To complain; to grumble.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To distress (someone); to sadden.