From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgruntgrunt1 /ɡrʌnt/ ●○○ verb 1 [intransitive, transitive]SAY to make short sounds or say a few words in a rough voice, when you do not want to talk He just grunted and carried on reading his book.2 [intransitive]CHBA if a person or animal grunts, they make short low sounds in their throat Grunting with effort, she lifted me up.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
grunt• ""What about a stripy wallpaper for this room?'' ""I dunno, '' he grunted.• Fabio grunted, and helped himself to beans.• A soldier fell on her, grunting and rooting.• He studied his hands, grunted, and stood up.• Wilcox grunted contemptuously, as if he had expected no better.• He just grunted "Hi" and kept walking.• Ballantyne grunted indifferently Mitchell put his cup to his mouth.• There was a knock on the door, and when he grunted muffled assent it opened and some one came in.• She grunted something I didn't catch.• He grunted, they said, and weaved and ducked like a prize fighter when asked questions.gruntgrunt2 noun [countable] 1 Ca short low sound that a person or animal makes in their throat Chris gave a grunt and went back to sleep.2 American English informalPMA someone who does hard physical work for low pay The grunts move the crates.3 American English informal a soldier in the infantryExamples from the Corpus
grunt• He stooped and, with a grunt, hoisted the man on to his vacant shoulder.• He stood up with a grunt.• With a little grunt, he returned to his cooking and she regretted her abrupt refusal.• There were no grunts, no thumps, no scuffling of feet.• We brought a load of grunts with us, and they jumped off to join their fellows as soon as we landed.• He was supposed to advise the grunts on how to use the aircraft and the crews assigned to them.• I could hear Hilda moaning, then the grunts, laughter and jeering of the soldiers.• He was shot down trying to resupply them and spent the entire night crewing a machine gun with the grunts.Origin grunt1 Old English grunettan 