gripe
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡɹaɪp/
rhymes: -aɪp
Forms: form: gripes
form: griping
form: griped
form: grope
form: griped
form: grope
form: gripen
Etymology: From 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.
Senses: examples: text: 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, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character.
ref: 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in AV Club:
text: 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.
ref: 2025 September 24, Stuart Heritage, “Go quietly and get a side hustle: how to quit acting properly”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: bitch
complain
whine
whinge
glosses: To complain; to whine.
examples: text: What's griping you?
glosses: To annoy or bother.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To tend to come up into the wind, as a ship which, when sailing close-hauled, requires constant labour at the helm.
examples: text: How inly sorrow gripes his soul.
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
glosses: To pinch; to distress. Specifically, to cause pinching and spasmodic pain to the bowels of, as by the effects of certain purgative or indigestible substances.
examples: text: the griping of an hungry belly
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:
qualifier: now archaic except in passive
glosses: To suffer griping pains.
examples: text: 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 at the last for to go as he came.
ref: 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 14]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To make a grab (to, towards, at or upon something).
examples: text: Wouldst thou gripe both gain and pleasure?
ref: 1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the Newe Yle Called Utopia: […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for] Abraham Vele, […], →OCLC:
text: 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:
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
text: Unclutch his griping hand.
ref: 1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To seize or grasp.