What's the difference between complain and groan?

Complain


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To give utterance to expression of grief, pain, censure, regret. etc.; to lament; to murmur; to find fault; -- commonly used with of. Also, to creak or squeak, as a timber or wheel.
  • (v. i.) To make a formal accusation; to make a charge.
  • (v. t.) To lament; to bewail.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In the ketamine group, 36% of the patients complained of unpleasant dreams.
  • (2) Sewel is also recorded complaining about the level of appearance allowances at the House of Lords .
  • (3) A case is presented of a 35-year-old woman who was brought to the emergency service by ambulance complaining of vomiting for 7 days and that she could not hear well because she was 'worn out'.
  • (4) Because they generally have to be positioned on hills to get the maximum benefits of the wind, some complain that they ruin the landscape.
  • (5) The matter is now in the hands of the Guernsey police and the law officers.” One resident who is a constant target of the paper and has complained to police, Rosie Guille, said the allegations had a “huge impact on morale” on the island.
  • (6) Unions have complained about the process for Chinese-backed companies to bring overseas workers to Australia for projects worth at least $150m, because the memorandum of understanding says “there will be no requirement for labour market testing” to enter into an investment facilitation arrangements (IFA).
  • (7) The degree of discomfort was slightly greater in women who complained of breast tenderness within three days prior to the mammogram but was not strongly related to age, menstrual status, or week of the menstrual cycle.
  • (8) Lofgren complains that " the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital centre today ".
  • (9) TGI was present in high titres in all five patients who complained about recurrent goitre.
  • (10) Hyperprolactinemia, hypogonadotropinism, and subnormal plasma testosterone were found in a 65-year-old patient who had an enlarged sella turcica, complained of fatigue, and addmitted to decreased sexual interest and potency.
  • (11) Fairly frequently the patients complained about mucosal dryness and sporadically about dyspeptic symptoms, but these symptoms were not disturbing the course of the treatment.
  • (12) A forty-four-year-old woman with Takayasu's arteritis and involvement of the aortic arch and its main branches complained of precordial pain on effort.
  • (13) The £1m fine, proposed during the Leveson inquiry into press standards, was designed to demonstrate how seriously the industry was taking lessons learned after the failure of the Press Complains Commission tto investigate phone hacking at the News of the World.
  • (14) That was what the earlier debate over “currency wars” – when emerging markets complained about being inundated by financial inflows from the US – was all about.
  • (15) These results are likely to underestimate the true number of complaints because participants may be withdrawn (e.g., deaths, losses to follow-up, and refusals) before they ever complain of an adverse effect.
  • (16) Hysterography and hysteroscopy have been compared in the diagnosis of endouterine benign pathology, in a group of 50 patients, complaining meno-metrorrhagia, sterility, infertility or amenorrhea.
  • (17) A 55-year-old Japanese man was admitted to our hospital in January 1985 complaining of epigastralgia.
  • (18) Israel has complained in recent weeks of an increase in stone throwing and molotov cocktail attacks on West Bank roads and in areas adjoining mainly Palestinian areas of Jerusalem, where an elderly motorist died after crashing his car during an alleged stoning attack.
  • (19) The force said reports from its directorate of professional standards (DPS) were not routinely disclosed to complainants or outsiders.
  • (20) Although 41% of the participants complained of dry mouth, neither serious adverse effects nor evidence of medication abuse appeared.

Groan


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To give forth a low, moaning sound in breathing; to utter a groan, as in pain, in sorrow, or in derision; to moan.
  • (v. i.) To strive after earnestly, as with groans.
  • (v. t.) To affect by groans.
  • (n.) A low, moaning sound; usually, a deep, mournful sound uttered in pain or great distress; sometimes, an expression of strong disapprobation; as, the remark was received with groans.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For the final three visible minutes, Lockett writhed, groaned, attempted to lift himself off the gurney and tried to speak, despite a doctor having declared him unconscious.
  • (2) If I give a conference here, people groan when I talk about him.
  • (3) Of the Iraqi people, groaning under years of dictatorship.
  • (4) We meet at the headquarters of the Independent and the Evening Standard in Kensington, in an office scented by a Jo Malone orange blossom candle, and groaning with contemporary art.
  • (5) Clippard gets ahead of him 0-2, throws a high fastball which Carpenter refuses to chase and then takes two more balls to the collective groan of Nationals Park.
  • (6) Despite the world-weary tone of a brutal review in the New York Times, which suggested that it added nothing new to the "groaning shelf" of homosexual literature, a story with an unashamedly gay protagonist unleashed a storm of protest in a country where sodomy was still illegal.
  • (7) It's the first interview he's done since his marriage and divorce and the split-up of the Ordinary Boys, and it all comes rushing out in a spate, a tangle of chronological confusions and jokes, and groans when I quote some of his old interviews back at him, and statements of contrition, and digressions about Dawkins or whatever, and here's the confounding thing - he's really nothing like I was expecting, not indie-boy sulky, or attempting to play it cool, he's just talkative and engaging, and he has a sense of humour about himself that, from reading his previous interviews, I wouldn't have even guessed at.
  • (8) Not all the jokes land, and some of the tastelessness may inspire groans.
  • (9) A s the schools break up for summer, the shelves of Britain’s retailers are groaning with “half price” sun protection cream offers, ready for families heading to the beach.
  • (10) The retired appeal court judge's report, which runs to three volumes, found that troops from 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment inflicted "gratuitous" violence on a group of 10 Iraqi civilians, who were kicked and hit in turn, "causing them to emit groans and other noises and thereby playing them like musical instruments".
  • (11) "Oh God," groaned a delegate leafing through the guide to fringe meetings.
  • (12) There were groans as Clinton was declared victorious, although there was also defiance.
  • (13) Read more The MEPs responded to his oration with a mixture of boos, groans, shouts and ironic applause.
  • (14) The family justice review speculates that the cost of the entire groaning, overloaded family court system – only likely to be exacerbated after Thursday's report into the death of another toddler, Ryan Lovell Hancox – could be in the region of £1.5bn.
  • (15) The home fans groaned whenever the ball went near the Romanian, Benteke often pulled away to the left to unsettle him, and Villa’s opener came after he conceded possession cheaply inside his own half.
  • (16) Meanwhile, New York and New Jersey groaned back to life after travel bans.
  • (17) "There's a stereotype of a groaning bodybuilding guy using the weights area," says McGown.
  • (18) I'd groan at gossip magazines, furious with the world's asinine obsession with celebrity, disappointed by women gazing doe-eyed at the camera with vulnerable, save-me expressions on their Botoxed faces.
  • (19) Between their inward groans and suppressed giggles, the friends recognised something of great value, a familiar form no other artist had yet nicked.
  • (20) I can think of many things, of whether we summon the strength to recognise the global challenge of the 21st century and beat it, of the Iraqi people groaning under years of dictatorship, of our armed forces - brave men and women of whom we can feel proud, whose morale is high and whose purpose is clear - of the institutions and alliances that shape our world for years to come.