Forms: 6 whyn(n)ye, whiny, wynny, -ie, 7–9 whinney, 9 winny, 6– whinny. [Imitative; cf. the earlier whine (14th cent.), whrinny (15th cent.), and L. hinnīre.]
1. intr. Of a horse: To neigh, esp. in a low or gentle way; also occasionally of other animals, as calves or certain birds, or of inanimate objects making a similar noise.
1530. Palsgr., 781/1. My horse whynyeth cherfully this mornyng. Ibid., 782/2. I wynny, as a horse dothe.
1592. [? Greene], Def. Conny Catch. (1859), 19. After an amorous weke or two, as old Jades wynnie when they cannot wagge the tayle.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, XII. (1686), 173. The Horses when upon the Brink they were, Boggl’d and whinny’d, and refus’d to pass.
1683. Snape, Anat. Horse, II. ix. (1686), 93. Does the horse neigh, or whinney as they call it in some Countrys?
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxiii. Dumple … walked to his own stable-door, and there pawed and whinnied for admission.
1855. Kingsley, Westw. Ho! vii. The colts in the horse-park … whinnied as they played together.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breaks.-t., xii. French horns whinnied.
1885. Mrs. C. Praed, Head Station, xlvi. The calves whinnied in their pen as she approached.
1893. Kipling, Many Intent., Finest Story, 124. The gas-jet puffed and whinnied.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, xxxvii. Again the bird [sc. snipe] whinnied in the air.
2. trans. To utter with a whinnying sound; to express by whinnying.
1815. Scott, Guy M., li. ‘He who shot young Hazlewood—ha, ha, ho!’ burst forth the Dominie, with a laugh that sounded like neighing…. ‘Accidental! ho, ho, ha!’ again whinnied Sampson.
1859. Meredith, R. Feverel, xxiv. ‘I can’t move,’ Benson made a resolute halt. ‘I must be fetched,’ he whinnied.
1888. Gunter, Mr. Potter, iv. 45. The donkeys who whinny their pleasure as they drink it [water].
Hence Whinnying vbl. sb. and ppl. a. († also quasi-adv.).
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 358/2. Hinnitus,… the neying or whinying of an horse or mare.
1595. North, Plutarch, Sylla, 514. A sharpe voyce like the neying of a horse, or whynnying of a goate.
1607. Markham, Cavel., I. xvi. 63. Where they may neither heare the noyse of their dams, nor their dams heare their whinneing.
1675. Cotton, Burlesque upon B., 40. I … run whynnying mad, for every woman that I see.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, viii. His low whinnying neigh, his pricked ears [etc.].
1837. W. Irving, Bonneville, xli. The elk kept up a continual whinnying or squealing.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., lxx. Several small, whinnying laughs.
1881. Mrs. C. Praed, Policy & P., xvi. There was a whinnying call from one horse to another.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xxv. The whinnying of swords as they whistled through the air.
