bleat Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the sound of sheep or goats (or any sound resembling this)
  2. verb talk whiningly
  3. verb cry plaintively
    blate; blat; baa.
    • The lambs were bleating

WordNet

Bleat intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. bleten, AS. bltan; akin to D. blaten, bleeten, OHG. blazan, plazan; prob. of imitative origin.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Bleated; present participle & verbal noun Bleating
Definitions
  1. To make the noise of, or one like that of, a sheep; to cry like a sheep or calf.
    Then suddenly was heard along the main, To low the ox, to bleat the woolly train. Pope
    The ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baas, will never answer a calf when he bleats. Shak.
Bleat noun
Definitions
  1. A plaintive cry of, or like that of, a sheep.
    The bleat of fleecy sheep. Chapman's Homer.

Webster 1913