whiny

English

Alternative forms

• whiney

Etymology

From whine +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wīnʹi, IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪni/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪni
• Homophone: winy (wine–whine merger)

Adjective

whiny (comparative whinier, superlative whiniest)

1. Whining; tending to whine or complain.

   Emily is very whiny; she keeps complaining about trivial things.

   • 1981 May 10, Haskel Frankel, “ROSALIND HARRIS IN 'FUNNY GIRL'”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Mrs. Strakosh is played with a whinier accent than Mrs. Brice.

   • 1990 August 17, Caryn James, “Review/Film; An Adman, His Filofax And a Thief”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     But everyone else seems to have phoned in the film, including Mr. Grodin at his whiniest and Arthur Hiller, the veteran director of films as funny as The In-Laws and as unspeakable as Love Story.

   • 2000 January 24, Stephen Holden, “MUSIC IN REVIEW: CABARET; Turning 1960's Innocence Into 90's Toughness”, in The New York Times‎^[3]:

     It takes nerve for a singer to dig out a whiny teenage lament from the early days of rock 'n' roll and transform it into a sexy, slow-burning torch song for adults.

Derived terms

• whiny-ass titty baby

Translations

Translations

• Galician: mixiriqueiro
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: grinete

  Nynorsk: grinete

• Spanish: quejetas
• Swedish: gnällig (sv)