Wednesday, December 19, 2012

whinge

whinge \hwinj\, verb:

To complain; whine.

Sorry Tom. Canadian idiom. Whinge. Complain. Petition for redress. Assemble. March in those five-abreast demonstrating lines. Shake upraised fists in unison.
-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
It was a tough life but you could never whinge because you knew you'd got to heaven and therefore, logically and rationally, you had to be happy. To whinge would have been an unforgivable sin.
-- Susan Howatch, The High Flyer

Whinge is a Northern variant of the Old English word hwinsian meaning, "to whine."

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