different between bleat vs bleah

English

Alternative forms

• blate, blait (Scotland)

Etymology

From Middle English bleten, from Old English bl?tan (“to bleat”), from Proto-West Germanic *bl?tijan, from Proto-Germanic *bl?tijan? (“to bleat”). Cognate with Scots blete, bleit, West Frisian bâlte, blaaien, blêtsje (“to bleat”), Dutch blaten (“to bleat”), Low German bleten (“to bleat”), German blaßen, blässen (“to bleat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bli?t/
• Rhymes: -i?t

Noun

bleat (plural bleats)

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

Synonyms

• (sheep's cry): baa, baaing, bleating

Translations

Verb

bleat (third-person singular simple present bleats, present participle bleating, simple past and past participle bleated)

1. Of a sheep or goat, to make its characteristic cry; of a human, to mimic this sound.
2. (informal, derogatory) Of a person, to complain.

   The last thing we need is to hear them bleating to us about organizational problems.

Synonyms

• (make the characteristic cry of a sheep or goat): baa
• (complain): kvetch (US), moan, whinge (UK), whine

Translations

Anagrams

• ablet, blate, table

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *blautaz, whence also Old High German bl?z (“naked”), Old Norse blautr. More at blouse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blæ???t/

Adjective

bl?at

1. wretched

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: *blete, *bleet
  • Scots: bleat, blait, bleet

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian bl?t, from Proto-Germanic *blautaz.

Adjective

bleat

1. bare, naked
2. poor

Inflection

Further reading

• “bleat (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

Possibly connected with Proto-Slavic *b??vati (“to vomit”) (Russian ???????? (blevát?), Old Church Slavonic ??????? (bl?vati)), Ancient Greek ???? (phlú?, “I'm spouting”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?lewH-

Pronunciation

Interjection

bleah

1. (slang, US) Expresses negative feeling. The quality of the emotion expressed is more negative than that of blah and has a slight feeling of disgust, verging on nausea.
   • You bought that green station wagon? Bleah!
   • 2005, William Safire, The Ick Factor (in The New York Times, 25 September 2005)

     Reviewing my list of ickisms - yuck, yecch, bleah, ew and ick - the linguist [David McNeill] observes, "Negative words having to do with disgust seem to be embodied in the experience of expelling unwanted, possibly poisonous, materials from the mouth. […]

Anagrams

• Belah, Hable, Haleb, belah, hable