creak

Universal Words verb, noun verb to make the sound that a door sometimes makes when you open it or that a wooden floor sometimes makes when you step on it: [V] She heard a floorboard creak upstairs. * a creaking bed / gate / stair * The table creaked and groaned under the weight. * The timbers creaked as the boat set sail. * [V-ADJ] The door creaked open. IDIOMS creak under the strain if a system or service creaks under the strain, it cannot deal effectively with all the things it is expected to do or provide noun [C] (also creaking [U,C]) a sound, for example that sometimes made by a door when it opens or shuts, or by a wooden floor when you step on it: the creak / creaking of the door * Distant creaks and groans echoed eerily along the dark corridors.