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Complain vs Girn - What's the difference?

complain | girn |

As verbs the difference between complain and girn

is that complain is to express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment while girn is (label) to grimace; to snarl.

As a noun girn is

a vocalization similar to a cat's purring.

complain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment.
  • Joe was always complaining about the noise made by his neighbours.
  • * Milton
  • O loss of sight, of thee I most complain !
  • To make a formal accusation or bring a formal charge.
  • They've complained about me to the police again.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Now, Master Shallow, you'll complain of me to the king?
  • To creak or squeak, as a timber or wheel.
  • the complaining bed-springs

    Synonyms

    * grumble * grouse * grump * bitch * beef * gripe * whine * kvetch * moan * whinge * See also

    girn

    English

    Alternative forms

    * gurn * gurne

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To grimace; to snarl.
  • *1999 , (Jessica Stirling), The Wind from the Hills , St Martin's Press.
  • To whinge, moan, complain.
  • *2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 107:
  • (label) To make elaborate unnatural and distorted faces as a form of amusement or in a girning competition.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A vocalization similar to a cat's purring.
  • *2002 , edited by Richard J. Davidson, Handbook of Affective Sciences , Oxford University Press, p. 569:
  • A different vocalization, a girn, simiular to a cat's purring, was observed in infants reunited with their mothers...

    See also

    * gowl

    Anagrams

    * * *