gripe

present singular third person gripes · participle present griping · past griped · obsolete past grope · participle past griped · obsolete participle past grope · obsolete participle past gripen

1. informalintransitiveTo complain; to whine.

   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.

   2025 September 24, Stuart Heritage, “Go quietly and get a side hustle: how to quit acting properly”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   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.

   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, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2012

   Synonyms: bitch, complain, whine, whinge

2. informaltransitiveTo annoy or bother.

   What's griping you?

3. nauticalTo tend to come up into the wind, as a ship which, when sailing close-hauled, requires constant labour at the helm.
4. obsoletetransitiveTo 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.

   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]

5. intransitivenow archaic except in passiveTo suffer griping pains.

   the griping of an hungry belly

   1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC

6. intransitiveobsoleteTo 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 at the last for to go as he came.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

7. archaictransitiveTo seize or grasp.

   Unclutch his griping hand.

   1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Wouldst thou gripe both gain and pleasure?

   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

   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:

   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

plural gripes

1. A complaint, often a petty or trivial one.
2. nauticalA wire rope, often used on davits and other life raft launching systems.
3. obsoleteGrasp; clutch; grip.

   A barren sceptre in my gripe.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

   2 more examples

   The young peasant […] disengaged himself from Manfred's gripe […].

   1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section I

   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!"

   1833, Mary Shelley, The Mortal Immortal

4. obsoleteThat which is grasped; a handle; a grip.

   the gripe of a sword

5. datedengineeringA device for grasping or holding anything; a brake to stop a wheel.
6. obsoleteOppression; cruel exaction; affliction; pinching distress.

   the gripe of poverty

   1 more example

   '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, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

   1785, William Cowper, “The Garden”, in The Task, a Poem, in Six Books. By William Cowper […] To which are Added, by the Same Author, An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, and The History of John Gilpin, London: Printed for J[oseph] Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul's Church-Yard, OCLC 221351486; republished as The Task. A Poem. In Six Books. To which is Added, Tirocinium: or, A Review of Schools, new edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for Thomas Dobson, bookseller, in Second-street, second door above Chestnut-street, 1787, OCLC 23630717, page 87

7. in pluralPinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.

plural gripes

1. IrelandalternativedialectalAlternative form of grip (trench, ditch, furrow).

   “There was no use at all, you see, in thinkin' to run for it, for they wor dhrivin' at the rate uv a hunt; so down I got into the gripe o' the ditch, thinkin' to snake off wid mysilf while they war op'nin' the gate.”

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 520

plural gripes

1. alternativeAlternative form of grype.