whiny
Americanadjective
adjective
-
high-pitched and plaintive
-
peevish; complaining
Usage
What does whiny mean? Whiny is an adjective describing someone who is complaining in an annoying way, especially in a high-pitched tone of voice. To whine is to moan or make a high-pitched cry, or to say something in such a way. It also means to complain, especially by talking in such a way. Whiny is always used negatively to criticize such behavior. It can be used to describe a person or their words or actions. It is also spelled whiney. Example: People might help you with your problems if you weren’t so whiny about them.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of whiny
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
How do you advocate for yourself without coming across as whiny or dragging a coworker into the conversation when they probably never intended to reveal their salary?
From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026
And Ms. Millonzi wisely avoids turning Roderigo into an overly whiny and dim dupe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026
The stream of implementation emails is so whiny and ridiculous it should be funny.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2025
Emmett: “First stop saying you’re entitled to anything, ‘cause it’s a whiny word that makes my butt clench.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024
If he hadn't obsessed over love, hadn't been so tactless, so whiny, so nerdy—maybe if he hadn't been, Colin thought, so much like me...
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
He's even whinier than Trump and has a tendency to react to human contact like most people do to dog poop.
From Salon ● May 25, 2023
Roman compares their whole argument to when they were kids, when Kendall would play the sober-minded big brother in order to get chicken for dinner, while the whinier Roman wanted steak.
From New York Times ● May 14, 2023
The teacher said some of her own students misbehave whether parents are present or not and sometimes act whinier when parents are present during a virtual lesson.
From Fox News ● Dec. 1, 2020
Does there exist anywhere a whinier, more petulant, more entitled gang of businesses than California's big utility companies?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2018
Her voice was getting whinier by the second, the pitch rising higher and higher like a teakettle on the cusp of whistling.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
Randall Eliason, a law professor at George Washington University and former federal prosecutor, suggested the defense arguments were without merit, posting on X: “I think this is the whiniest pleading I've ever read.”
From Salon ● May 28, 2024
Also, even at 14 years old, K is one of the whiniest children I know when he doesn’t get what he wants.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2021
Most over-optimistic newspaper Over at Super Deporte, the shoutiest, whiniest and silliest of all the sports dailies, they never let you down.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 6, 2016
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
