What's the difference between moan and sigh?

Moan


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To make a low prolonged sound of grief or pain, whether articulate or not; to groan softly and continuously.
  • (v. i.) To emit a sound like moan; -- said of things inanimate; as, the wind moans.
  • (v. t.) To bewail audibly; to lament.
  • (v. t.) To afflict; to distress.
  • (v. i.) A low prolonged sound, articulate or not, indicative of pain or of grief; a low groan.
  • (v. i.) A low mournful or murmuring sound; -- of things.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The voters don’t do gratitude, self-pitying politicians are wont to moan.
  • (2) "A lot of people think, 'you're in work, what are you moaning about?'
  • (3) I was moaning about something, he was moaning about something.
  • (4) His department has formally complained to the BBC head of news, Helen Boaden, about the broadcaster's "carping and moaning".
  • (5) She thinks it's simple sexism, though she is loth to spell this out: "You can say that, but if I do, I'm just seen as moaning, playing the woman card again.
  • (6) That pitted him against the Democrat Jack Conway in November as the Republican elite moaned that such Tea Party rebellions would cost them seats.
  • (7) Jeremy Corbyn sweeps to victory increasing his mandate as Labour leader - Politics live Read more MPs who refuse to sit on the frontbench do not need to sit around moaning about Corbyn nor limit their ambition to avoiding deselection.
  • (8) This man's lawyers say he was then severely beaten: they allege that the initial blows, and their client's moans, can be heard faintly at the end of the video.
  • (9) Most moans 1 The Wright Stuff, Channel 5 (2,220 complaints) Matthew Wright uses Taggart catchphrase when talking about a suspicious death in the Western Isles.
  • (10) Ilike to go on Facebook and moan to friends about how awful Twitter is these days.
  • (11) When he is out socially he sometimes tells people that he works for the Post Office (it stops them soliciting invitations to send him scripts, and moaning about the kind of comedies they hate).
  • (12) He waits, outside, hearing "piteous, animal moans".
  • (13) No doubt if she worked on the checkout in Tesco you’d be telling her to resign over the company’s financial fraud investigation or the moans about how it treats its suppliers.
  • (14) Elias said: "There was shouting, moaning – even screaming – coming from the TDF [temporary detention facility] from time to time during the detention, according to some witnesses."
  • (15) G4S staff are relaxed about this, noting simply: “Prisoners moan.
  • (16) For me that is one of the most important battles for fairness.” During the presidential campaign he was caught moaning about “intellectual women who think they are downtrodden”, or who talk about their “ compañera ” cleaning lady, “when she is really the servant”.
  • (17) The video showed at length the interactions between Ms Dhu and police in the station , including moments when she can be heard crying and moaning in pain and asking for medical attention.
  • (18) Would anybody have any sympathy for the casino manager if he then started moaning that he’d lost £25,000?
  • (19) Stop your moaning about equal-rights this, maternity that, childcare the other.
  • (20) This isn't a sub-Rhodesian moan about Britain going to the dogs.

Sigh


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To inhale a larger quantity of air than usual, and immediately expel it; to make a deep single audible respiration, especially as the result or involuntary expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, or the like.
  • (v. i.) Hence, to lament; to grieve.
  • (v. i.) To make a sound like sighing.
  • (v. t.) To exhale (the breath) in sighs.
  • (v. t.) To utter sighs over; to lament or mourn over.
  • (v. t.) To express by sighs; to utter in or with sighs.
  • (v. i.) A deep and prolonged audible inspiration or respiration of air, as when fatigued or grieved; the act of sighing.
  • (v. i.) Figuratively, a manifestation of grief; a lan/ent.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "But this is not all Bulgarians and gives a totally wrong picture of what the country is about," she sighed.
  • (2) Whoever is Tory leader then may breathe a sigh of relief.
  • (3) Sighs provide an opportunity to study the interaction and the maturation of the autonomic nervous system.
  • (4) An adviser to the Sultan of Aïr, the town’s ceremonial leader , sighs.
  • (5) To all the college grads out there, sighing over their student loan payments, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has a message: it was all worth it.
  • (6) | Hugh Muir Read more Wherever Labour people gather to discuss how to break out of the vice tightening around the party, answers fail amid sighs of utter despair.
  • (7) However, the over-riding view is that with Global's plan to buy GMG Radio outright all but thwarted, senior executives at German-owned Bauer will be breathing a sigh of relief.
  • (8) "I wanna rearrange that bit," he sighs, "because I feel I'm just doing what's expected of an R&B artist to take your shirt off.
  • (9) I think it should be a huge sigh of relief for EADS shareholders."
  • (10) "It's hard," sighed Royal, asked how she was faring.
  • (11) As for Botha, he breathed a sigh of relief that his ordeal was over.
  • (12) "Some even call me her pet," he sighs, raising his eyebrows in exasperation.
  • (13) He sighs, though whether this is out of weariness and regret, or impatience at my line of questioning, is difficult to tell.
  • (14) "Oh Lynn," she sighs, "you can't seriously expect me to answer that."
  • (15) Thus, promoter switching during the early stationary phase resulted not only in expression from SigH promoters but also in differential expression of the genes in the sigA operon.
  • (16) Jason Conibear, market analyst at forex specialists, Cambridge Mercantile, argues that Obama will be breathing a sigh of relief, even though US economic growth is slowing: American consumers are getting skittish again, but with the giant economy's output still creeping upwards, politicians and policymakers will find the perfect excuse to do nothing.
  • (17) Because this is due in part to variability in the way the information is obtained to make the various rating distinctions, the Structured Interview Guide for the HDRS (SIGH-D) was developed to standardize the manner of administration of the scale.
  • (18) Rumours,” Baddour sighed once more, as he returned from the platform.
  • (19) Clash of the sofas: BBC v ITV An age-old rivalry with plenty of previous, gone are the days where you'd sigh when you found out a match was on ITV not BBC.
  • (20) – but Russell happily slips in and out of voices and lines from the movie, his recollections punctuated by wistful sighs.