grudge

plural grudges

1. countableDeep-seated and/or long-term animosity or ill will about something or someone, especially due to perceived mistreatment.

   to have, hold, owe or bear a grudge against someone

   3 more examples

   Bag. And if I do not my good Lord damme me for it I haue an old grudge at him cole black curre,

   1607, Barnabe Barnes, THE DIVILS CHARTER: A TRAGÆDIE Conteining the Life and Death of Pope Alexander the ſixt, ACTVS. 5, SCÆ. 1

   I have never mentioned it to a human creature; I have kept my grudge to myself. I daresay I have been wicked, but my grudge has grown old with me.

   1877 March, Henry James, Jr., chapter XXII, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 389

   It is towards Saduko that he bears a grudge, for you know, my father, one should never pull a drowning man out of the stream — which is what Saduko did, for had it not been for his treachery, Cetewayo would have sunk beneath the water of Death — especially if it is only to spite a woman who hates him.

   1913, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter XV, in Child of Storm

   Synonyms: rancor, spite, resentment

present singular third person grudges · participle present grudging · participle past grudged · past grudged

1. To be unwilling to give or allow (someone something).First known use 16th c.

   I've never seen such people for borrowing and lending; there was dough changing hands in all directions, and nobody grudged anyone.

   1953 September 18, Saul Bellow, chapter III, in The Adventures of Augie March […], New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC

   4 more examples

   Wee shall finde our whole life so necessarily ioyned with sorrow, that we ought rather delight (and take pleasure) in Gods louing chastisements, and admonitions, then any way murmure and grudge at our crosses, or tribulations :

   1608, Henrie Gosson, The Woefull and Lamentable wast and spoile done by a suddaine Fire in S. Edmonds-bury in Suffolke, on Munday the tenth of Aprill. 1608., reprinted by F. Pawsey, Old Butter Market, Ipswich, 1845, page 6

   If we of the central land were to grudge you what is beneficial, and not to compassionate your wants, then wherewithal could you foreigners manage to exist?

   1841, Edmund Burke, The Annual Register, Rivingtons, page 430

   Of course, his interest in the war and in the regiment was unbounded; he did not take to drill with especial readiness, but he was insatiable of it, and grudged every moment of relaxation.

   1869, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment, Fields, Osgood, & Co., page 62

   Our two inimitable drolls did a roaring trade with their broadsheets among lovers of the comedy element and nobody who has a corner in his heart for real Irish fun without vulgarity will grudge them their hardearned pennies.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[[Episode 12: The Cyclops]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

2. obsoleteTo grumble, complain; to be dissatisfied.First known use 15th–18th c.

   And the pharises, and scribes grudged sainge: He receaveth to his company synners [...].

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke

3. obsoleteTo hold or harbour with malicious disposition or purpose; to cherish enviously.

   Perish they / That grudge one thought against your majesty!

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First 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 III, scene i]