Grumble vs Mutter - What's the difference?
grumble | mutter | Synonyms |
(onomatopoeia) A low thundering, rumbling or growling sound.
The sound made by a hungry stomach.
A complaint.
To make a low, growling or rumbling noise, like a hungry stomach or certain animals.
* {{quote-book
, year=1995
, author=Terry C. Johnston
, title=Dance on the Wind
, page=15
, passage=It made his stomach grumble in protest to think the mule was eating, and here he was worrying about her with an empty belly of his own.}}
To complain; to murmur or mutter with discontent; to make ill-natured complaints in a low voice and a surly manner.
To utter in a grumbling fashion.
* 2001 , Harry Willcox Pfanz, Gettysburg — the first day?
A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.
(in Indian restaurants) peas
To utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=June 28
, author=Jamie Jackson
, title=Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal
, work=the Guardian
To speak softly and incoherently, or with imperfect articulations.
* Dryden
To make a sound with a low, rumbling noise.
* Alexander Pope
Mutter is a synonym of grumble.
As nouns the difference between grumble and mutter
is that grumble is a low thundering, rumbling or growling sound while mutter is a repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.As verbs the difference between grumble and mutter
is that grumble is to make a low, growling or rumbling noise, like a hungry stomach or certain animals while mutter is to utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.grumble
English
Noun
(en noun)- That whiner is never without a grumble to share.
Derived terms
* grumblyVerb
(grumbl)- The distant thunder grumbles .
- He grumbles about the food constantly, but has yet to learn to cook.
- He grumbled that there was no grain "in the country" and that people were talking instead of working to provide it.
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* grumblerSee also
* rumble English reporting verbsmutter
English
Noun
(en noun)- The prisoners were docile, and accepted their lot with barely a mutter .
Derived terms
* mutter paneerVerb
(en verb)- You could hear the students mutter as they were served sodden spaghetti, yet again, in the cafeteria.
- The beggar muttered words of thanks, as passersby dropped coins in his cup.
citation, page= , passage=This set – the set of Rosol's life – was studded with aces and menacing ground-strokes that left Nadal an impotent spectator often muttering to himself and at the umpire regarding a perceived misdemeanour by his opponent.}}
- The asylum inmate muttered some doggerel about chains and pains to himself, over and over.
- Meantime your filthy foreigner will stare, / And mutter to himself.
- April could hear the delivery van's engine muttering in the driveway.
- Thick lightnings flash, the muttering thunder rolls.
