CROAKING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does croaking mean? 

• CROAKING (noun)
  The noun CROAKING has 1 sense:

1. a harsh hoarse utterance (as of a frog)

  Familiarity information: CROAKING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CROAKING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A harsh hoarse utterance (as of a frog)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

croak; croaking

Hypernyms ("croaking" is a kind of...):

utterance; vocalization (the use of uttered sounds for auditory communication)

Derivation:

croak (utter a hoarse sound, like a raven)

 Context examples 

But there was no unusual sound—nothing but the low wash of the ripple and the croaking of the inmates of the wood.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

"Who's croaking now?" Bill demanded triumphantly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Then from out of the silence, imminent and threatening, there came once more that low, throaty croaking, far louder and closer than before.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He laughed so the while, like a great croaking frog, that I might have caught him had my breath not been as short as his legs were long.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On a sudden she heard a fluttering and croaking in the air, and the dwarf said, “Here come my masters.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“You’re surprised to see me, sir,” said he, in a strange, croaking voice.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was often tempted, when all was at peace around me, and I the only unquiet thing that wandered restless in a scene so beautiful and heavenly—if I except some bat, or the frogs, whose harsh and interrupted croaking was heard only when I approached the shore—often, I say, I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities for ever.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“You croaking fellow!” cried Thorpe.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Copperfield! said he, in a croaking whisper, as he hung by the iron on the roof, I thought you'd be glad to hear before you went off, that there are no squares broke between us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His eyes had the brightness of fever, there was a hectic flush upon either cheek, and dark crusts clung to his lips; the thin hands upon the coverlet twitched incessantly, his voice was croaking and spasmodic.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)