/ɡɹaɪp/
OriginFrom Middle English gripen, from Old English grīpan, from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreyb- (“to grab, grasp”). Cognate with West Frisian gripe, Low German griepen, Dutch grijpen, German greifen, Danish gribe, Swedish gripa. See also grip, grope.
- informal, intransitiveTo complain; to whine.
“In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape”
“After making The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003 (and griping to the press that he was “fed up with the idiots”), Sean Connery enjoyed 17 years of retirement before he died in 2020.”
- informal, transitiveTo annoy or bother.
- To tend to come up into the wind, as a ship which, when sailing close-hauled, requires constant labour at the helm.
- obsolete, transitiveTo pinch; to distress. Specifically, to cause pinching and spasmodic pain to the bowels of, as by the effects of certain purgative or indigestible substances.
“How inly sorrow gripes his soul.”
- intransitiveTo suffer griping pains.
“the griping of an hungry belly”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo make a grab (to, towards, at or upon something).
“Therefore, everyman, look to that last end that is thy death and the dust that gripeth on every man that is born of woman for as he came naked forth from his mother's womb so naked shall he wend him a”
- archaic, transitiveTo seize or grasp.
“Wouldst thou gripe both gain and pleasure?”
“UUhoſe hands are made to gripe a warlike Lance— / Their ſhoulders broad, for complet armour fit, / Their lims more large and of a bigger ſize / Than all the brats yſprong from Typhons loins:”
“Unclutch his griping hand.”
- A complaint, often a petty or trivial one.
- A wire rope, often used on davits and other life raft launching systems.
- obsoleteGrasp; clutch; grip.
“A barren sceptre in my gripe.”
“The young peasant […] disengaged himself from Manfred's gripe […].”
“I started — I dropped the glass — the fluid flamed and glanced along the floor, while I felt Cornelius's gripe at my throat, as he shrieked aloud, "Wretch! you have destroyed the labour of my life!"”
- obsoleteThat which is grasped; a handle; a grip.
- datedA device for grasping or holding anything; a brake to stop a wheel.
- obsoleteOppression; cruel exaction; affliction; pinching distress.
“the gripe of poverty”
“'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing”
- in-pluralPinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.
Formsgripes(present, singular, third-person) · griping(participle, present) · griped(past) · grope(obsolete, past) · griped(participle, past) · grope(obsolete, participle, past) · gripen(obsolete, participle, past) · gripes(plural)