Definition of "creak"

Then when the four ropes were arranged the coffin was placed upon them. He watched it descend; it seemed descending for ever. At last a thud was heard; the ropes creaked as they were drawn up.

1856, Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), Gustave Flaubert (author), Madame Bovary, Part III, Chapter 10

He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey's paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.

1901, W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw

Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry.

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

I miss the polished brass, the powerful black horses,The drivers creaking the seats of the baroque hearses, […]

1941, Theodore Roethke, “On the Road to Woodlawn”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, page 21

Fascinating though this high-minded re-reading was, certain crucial joints of the play creaked a good deal under the strain.

2002, Stanley Wells, Shakespeare Survey, volume 39, page 205

The whole basis of feudalism, especially in the more intensively farmed champion arable landscapes of the Midlands, was starting to creak.

2007, Francis Pryor, Britain in the Middle Ages: An Archaeological History, page 232