How to Use bleat in a Sentence

bleat

1 of 2 verb
  • The lamb bleated as I approached.
  • The labor union is always bleating about the management.
  • The old man bleated out a laugh.
    — Literary Hub, 9 Dec. 2025
  • His tent grows dim, and sheep bleat for water outside.
    — Arsalan Bukhari, Christian Science Monitor, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Gobble, quack, and bleat your way to a close encounter with these tools.
    — John Kennedy, Popular Science, 7 Jan. 2020
  • The wailing alarm had now been joined by a shrill, bleating second alarm sound.
    — Keith Sharon, USA TODAY, 3 Apr. 2023
  • One of the tiniest goats bleated and scrambled to get out of its owner's grip.
    — Sheryl Devore, Lake County News-Sun, 26 July 2017
  • Goats and sheep staying in the barn bleated, and horses neighed as the crowd of people grew.
    — David Anderson, baltimoresun.com, 23 July 2019
  • State troopers said throughout the video, the deer makes grunting or bleating sounds.
    — oregonlive, 11 Dec. 2019
  • The goat did a lot of bleating, baa-baa, and Malika joined in for the chorus.
    — Joan Silber, New Yorker, 30 Nov. 2025
  • At first, some colleagues seem startled to hear her signature song’s bleating horns.
    — Cassie Owens, Philly.com, 24 May 2018
  • Those who bleat about starters not pitching deep into games are ignorant of how much baseball has changed in the past few years.
    — Tom Verducci, SI.com, 25 Oct. 2017
  • The synths are high-energy, all bleated out and exciting, but the hip-hop beat keeps things chill on the back end.
    — Kat Bein, Billboard, 5 May 2017
  • Woods expanded into fields full of sheep that bleated in pitches high and low—short like hiccups, long like pleas.
    — Anya Yurchyshyn, refinery29.com, 11 May 2018
  • In a nearby field, a shepherd tended to about 100 loudly bleating sheep.
    — David Segal, New York Times, 1 May 2023
  • Joe Anderson still bleating on about Ross Barkley's move to Chelsea.
    — SI.com, 9 Jan. 2018
  • As the fawn bleated, the big bird held on to the back of the young deer, eventually driving it underwater.
    — Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 19 Aug. 2017
  • After spending a few minutes in the sewer, bleats from a baby deer could be heard as the man emerged holding the tiny creature in his arms.
    — Kimberlee Speakman, Peoplemag, 2 June 2023
  • But the days of Norm’s tenor bleating from your radio every morning are apparently all but over.
    — Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 21 June 2023
  • So a documentary about her life, no doubt filled with concert footage of her 1970s bleating?
    — Amy Kaufmanstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2019
  • At the moment, the entire herd is bleating and running frantically around their nearby pen.
    — Jennifer Goldstein, Marie Claire, 29 Nov. 2018
  • Even those inside that didn’t come out must have heard the truck horns moaning, the air brakes bleating, the hymn of an industrial funeral.
    — New York Times, 31 Mar. 2020
  • Here came Corgan, bleating a ballad that was genuinely moving, and people wanted to hear it.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2026
  • Punch surveys the bleating lowlifes ringed around him on the beach, cheering, laughing, waiting for the next act, but their whoops sound fake, their howls of laughter hollow.
    — Robert Coover, The New Yorker, 18 July 2019
  • But experiencing the eclipse among thousands of grazing, bleating sheep?
    — OregonLive.com, 21 Aug. 2017
  • His night ended with him appropriately surrounded in the locker room by teammates who were bleating like goats.
    — Los Angeles Times, 2 May 2026
  • Their bleating cry is as much the music of these green mountains as the shrill call of the oystercatchers, the Faroes' noisy national bird.
    — Tim Ecott, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 May 2023
  • And when her furry black-and-white friend follows her — bleating at her heels, eager for more affection — Kusimayu keeps walking.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 24 Dec. 2025
  • The man sitting in front of me—rugged, with a fine Rockwell Kent profile—tips forward and begins to emit gentle, bleating snores.
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Speech ultimately seemed no more consequential than bleating or barking.
    — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 5 Feb. 2018

bleat

2 of 2 noun
  • Use calls, such as bleats, grunts, snort-wheezes, grunt-snort-wheezes, and more.
    — Josh Honeycutt, Outdoor Life, 24 Oct. 2024
  • He's been front-page for months, every bleat, blurt, yelp, and belch.
    — Author: Garrison Keillor, Alaska Dispatch News, 6 Aug. 2017
  • Hungry fawns often make a soft bleat that has a begging tone to it.
    — Jarrod Spilger, Field & Stream, 6 Dec. 2019
  • Across the glade a chorus of bleats drifts from a crumbling hut, shaped from thatch and earth.
    — The Economist, 18 July 2019
  • Every night the lamb would cry, and be told to hush, for its bleats disturbed their sleep.
    — Karen Zautyk, New York Daily News, 24 Dec. 2024
  • Kirby then issues five or six doe bleats, followed by six to eight tending grunts.
    — Jarrod Spilger, Field & Stream, 6 Dec. 2019
  • This phase is the perfect time to get your hands on a grunt tube, a bleat can, and rattling antlers—and be ready to use them.
    — Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Not a sound from anywhere, save the occasional bleat from one of the Hansens' sheep.
    — Boris Fishman, Smithsonian, 16 Aug. 2017
  • The title comes from a baby deer’s bleat during mating season.
    — Megan Friedman, Country Living, 6 Nov. 2018
  • The alarm continued its steady bleat, the volume seeming to increase.
    — Emma Cline, The New Yorker, 1 June 2020
  • Moments later, the bear rushes in, bites the fawn in the back, and violently shakes it as the fawn lets out piercing bleats.
    — Alice Jones Webb, Outdoor Life, 17 Apr. 2025
  • And thanks to the generosity of some village residents, the sounds of those warning bleats from the trains that pass through will stop.
    — Jennie Key, Cincinnati.com, 29 Aug. 2017
  • Nobody thinks much of the Cavs these days … not even the Cavs, who aren’t doing the usual bleat about lack of respect.
    — Mark Heisler, Orange County Register, 8 Apr. 2017
  • For every gunshot fired and a horn’s violent bleat, there is hope in the eyes of the last of the Last Poets.
    — Philly.com, 14 June 2018
  • The whining of the wind, the whistle of a marmot and an occasional bleat from sheep somewhere in the distance are the only sounds.
    — The Washington Post, The Denver Post, 30 Mar. 2017
  • Goats in real life are smart, sensitive social creatures who communicate through bleats and body language.
    — Michael Freeman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Feb. 2025
  • Late that afternoon, Flint was sitting quietly against his tree and using a Primos can call to make bleats.
    — Bob McNally, Outdoor Life, 3 Dec. 2025
  • The gentle call of birds floated overhead, occasionally mixing with the goats’ bleats, as yogis laid out mats among the pygmies.
    — Emily Chappell, Detroit Free Press, 29 June 2017
  • The Zoo’s popular Giant Panda Cam is one of the best ways to listen in for the chirps, honks, bleats, barks and squeals.
    — Beth Py-Lieberman, Smithsonian, 10 Aug. 2019
  • On a recent weekday morning, the shrill bleat of a drill unscrewing a wooden crate echoed over music playing from a small speaker in the building’s rotunda.
    — Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2021
  • Engineering automotive sound, whether the bland bleat of a commuter car or the expressive rumble of a sports car, is a delicate balance.
    — Jaclyn Trop, Discover Magazine, 8 Aug. 2020
  • In an unseen orchestra that bleats and blares, an urgent trombone chorus heralds every leap into banality.
    — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 15 Mar. 2018
  • As Bryant scrupulously took notes on dance moves, and Davis practiced his bleat, some moments seemed sure to land differently, even though they were crafted years ago.
    — Michael Paulson, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2021
  • Busting out a box of instruments that turned the room into a riot of noise, Sheeran then encourage each student to share their unique sound into the mic, from saxophone bleats to fart sounds.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Is that noise coming from Jack Tobias’ synth, Rosenstock’s guitar pedals, or Zack Borzone’s bleat?
    — Grayson Haver Currin, Pitchfork, 11 June 2026
  • Aside from some rhetorical bleats, Republicans are acquiescing as Trump makes foreign policy by and for his viscera.
    — George Will, Twin Cities, 13 Oct. 2019
  • While does and young deer utter a sheep-like bleat to communicate with each other, this sound is relatively quiet; under most conditions, these sounds are audible from only a short distance.
    — Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 28 Sep. 2023
  • Tesla for a time included in its vehicles the ability to replace the humming noises that electric cars must emit—since their engines make little sound—with goat bleats, farting, or a sound of the owner’s choice.
    — Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Hip-hop has been moving in this direction for the last few years, from Future’s purple opiate haze to Travis Scott’s head-in-the clouds bleats — styles that lend themselves easily to ambient bliss.
    — New York Times, 9 May 2018
  • Other songs featured hard-rock guitar solos or free-jazz horn bleats, neatly integrated into the arrangements and the overall presentation, which included a mix of live and prerecorded video.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bleat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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