creak

Object

• floorboard: The building is old, and the creaking floorboards badly need replacing.
• noise: Please hurry, the branch I'm holding just made a creaking noise!
• timber: Moving through the creaking wooden timbers, I headed up a flight of spiral steps.
• door: Time can be measured in lengths; a few inches of tape for a breath or a creaking door.
• infrastructure: Considering Russia's creaking infrastructure, not to mention winters that defeated Napoleon and Hitler, the task could be Herculean.
• bone: He tries to warm the cold, creaking bones in his back.

Converse of object

hear: He actually could hear the creaks of the walls settling.

Preposition: at

seam: The British constitution, at least in regard to England, is now creaking at the seams.

Adjective complement

open: I love this business... BIRMINGHAM Tossing in my bunk, I dream I see the gates of hell creaking open.

Modifying Another Word

• slowly: An age seemed to go by before the door of the hut slowly creaked open.
• already: I wonder how the already creaking transport network will cope with more residents?
• now: The British constitution, at least in regard to England, is now creaking at the seams.
• n't: Stepping up out of the bike, I did n't creak, I didn't groan and my bum didn't feel flat.
• alarmingly: The home side's line out worked well but the scrum creaked alarmingly under pressure at times.

Used with why or when

when: The bottom bracket is creaking when I climb the hills.

Preposition: of

• door: Ants tap dancing on the floor, the creaking of a bedroom door.
• oar: At last, out of the darkness, came the faint creaking of oars.

Preposition: under

• strain: It replaced an aging, mostly paper-based system which was creaking under the strain of the companyâs growth.
• weight: Many an office floor in January creaks under the weight of all those mince pies.
• pressure: F creaks under pressure & we all help finish washing up.