to kvetch
- verb
- /kˈvɛtʃ/
- Informal
- It's exhausting to listen to him kvetch about every little inconvenience.
Examples
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One more thing: Germany and China, quit kvetching about the dollar.
Academic text (2011) -
Everyone I know flails around, kvetching and growing despondent, on the way to finding a plot and structure that work.
Academic text (1998) -
Rather than just kvetch about the media, they decided to try to become the media.
Blog text (14) -
I don't wanna have to listen to him kvetch about how "Nobody ever does anything for anybody but themselves."
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We all need to keep that in mind before opening our mouths to kvetch too often.
Blog text (19) -
When he learned that he had cancer of the esophagus, he refused to kvetch and said, "It's no big deal."
Blog text (19) -
And not by kvetching, but by taking a reality pill and a look around.
Blog text (13) -
If I can't kvetch, I can't do my job.
-
I work in Washington Heights, and I get so tired of people kvetching about gentrification.
Blog text (24) -
And they will be kvetching about the results and telling you it confirms their sectarian beliefs.
Blog text (26)
Synonyms
To say you are unhappy about something and want it changed
To complain a lot in an annoying way
To complain in a high, annoying voice
To complain quietly in a low voice
To complain repeatedly about small things
To keep complaining about something in a way that annoys people
Talk again and again about the same thing and annoy people
To say your opinion or complain loudly and openly
To complain a lot in an annoying way
To complain about small unimportant things
To complain quietly about something you do not like
To complain in an annoying way about small things
To complain a lot about small things and annoy others
To complain when you are in a bad mood
To complain a lot in an annoying way
To complain in a bad-tempered way
To complain about small, unimportant things
Antonyms
How Complaining
Surface Forms
Etymology
Kvetch comes from Yiddish and originally meant 'to squeeze' or 'press'. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine someone 'squeezing' complaints out of their mouth, so to kvetch is to complain again and again about small things.