Lexic.us

Definition of Bleat

1. Verb. Talk whiningly.

2. Noun. The sound of sheep or goats (or any sound resembling this).

3. Verb. Cry plaintively. "The meadows bleat with animals "; "The lambs were bleating"

Definition of Bleat

1. v. i. To make the noise of, or one like that of, a sheep; to cry like a sheep or calf.

2. n. A plaintive cry of, or like that of, a sheep.

Definition of Bleat

1. Noun. The characteristic cry of a sheep or a goat. ¹

2. Verb. Of a sheep or goat, to make its characteristic cry. ¹

3. Verb. (informal) Of a person, to complain. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Bleat

1. to utter the cry of a sheep [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Bleat

bleareye bleareyed bleareyedness bleargh blearier bleariest blearily bleariness blearinesses blearing

blears bleary bleary-eyed bleary eye bleasdaleite bleat (current term) bleated bleater bleaters bleating

bleatings bleats bleaty bleb blebbed blebbier blebbiest blebbing blebbings

Literary usage of Bleat

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. American Ballads and Songs by Louise Pound (1922)
"Here a shoo and there a shoo, and A bleat bleat here and a bleat bleat there, Here a bleat and there a bleat, and A boo hoo here and a boo hoo there, ..."

2. A Dictionary of English Etymology by Hensleigh Wedgwood (1872)
"... to bleat, and thus explains the origin of forms like Sw. ... to bleat, showing the origin of Scotch Maille, as the proper name of a tame sheep, ..."

3. An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: To which is Prefixed, a by John Jamieson (1880)
"J Mactaggart derive» the term " from Mae the bleat of a »beep ;'Tiut it may be deduced from CB mal, fond, doting ; or rather from Gael, ..."

4. The Knickerbocker: Or, New-York Monthly Magazine by Charles Fenno Hoffman, Timothy Flint, Lewis Gaylord Clark, Kinahan Cornwallis, John Holmes Agnew (1844)
"For the guilty alone, is thy message of wrath ; To the pure and the penitent children of men, How bleat is thy summons ! how bright is thy path ! ..."

5. Cyclopaedia of English Literature: A Selection of the Choicest Productions by Robert Chambers, Robert Carruthers (1853)
"Yet there he'll pray that the unkind may prove bleat in her choice ; and vow* this endless love Spring« from no hope of what ehe can confer, But from those ..."

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