grunt

CEFRC1

/ɡɹʌnt/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To make a short low sound from effort or pain.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    Any fish of the perciform family Haemulidae.

Examples

  • What do you expect from a pig but a grunt.

  • Marzipan pigs do not grunt.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meaning

  1. The snorting cry of a pig.

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A short snorting sound, often to show disapproval, or used as a reply when one is reluctant to speak.

  2. A person who does ordinary and boring work.

More examples

In context

  • Who just grunted?

  • The poges stare at the grunts as though the grunts were Hell's Angels at the ballet.

  • The stranger, with a comfortable kind of grunt over his pipe, put his legs up on the settle that he had to himself.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

A tired soldier may blank in pain while lifting a heavy box.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English grunten, from Old English grunnettan (“to grunt”), from Proto-West Germanic *grunnattjan, from Proto-Germanic *grunnatjaną (“to grunt”), frequentative of Proto-Germanic *grunnōną (“to grunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrun- (“to shout”). Cognate with German grunzen (“to grunt”), Danish grynte (“to grunt”). The noun senses are all instances of zero derivation from the verb.