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Definition of "whine" []

  • To utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint. (verb-intransitive)
  • To complain or protest in a childish fashion. (verb-intransitive)
  • To produce a sustained noise of relatively high pitch: jet engines whining. (verb-intransitive)
  • To utter with a whine. (verb-transitive)
  • The act of whining. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "whine" in a sentence
  • "The perennial whine is that men age better than women, but I honestly don't think that's true – it's all down to conditioning, and the fact that lived-in female faces are so absent from approved commercial images that we haven't learned to appreciate them by adjusting our aesthetic expectations accordingly."
  • "The whine is that there are no CA wines to fit the cuisine."
  • "The standard big business whine is that they will leave WA and go to another state."