whimper

Etymology

From dialectal whimp (“to whine”) + -er (frequentative suffix). Compare German wimmern (“to whimper, whine”).

noun

1. A low intermittent sob.

verb

1. To cry or sob softly and intermittently.
   The lonely puppy began to whimper as soon as we left the room.
2. To cry with a low, whining, broken voice; to whine; to complain.
3. To say something in a whimpering manner.
   “Master, please don’t punish me!” he whimpered.
   Stripped of all bravado, Cersei breaks, and shows the very scared, vulnerable woman who has kept her emotions at bay. “I don’t want to die,” she whimpers, “Not like this.” It’s all the more moving for coming from a character who built her identity on steely resolve and contempt for such hoary conceits as fear. 12 May 2019, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club