gripe

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.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹaɪp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪp

gripe (third-person singular simple present gripes, present participle griping, simple past griped or (obsolete) grope, past participle griped or (obsolete) grope or (obsolete) gripen)

1. (intransitive, informal) To complain; to whine.

   Synonyms: bitch (vulgar), complain, whine, whinge

   • 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^[1]:

     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.

   • 2025 September 24, Stuart Heritage, “Go quietly and get a side hustle: how to quit acting properly”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     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.

2. (transitive, informal) To annoy or bother.

   What's griping you?

3. (nautical) To tend to come up into the wind, as a ship which, when sailing close-hauled, requires constant labour at the helm.^[1]
4. (obsolete, transitive) 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.
   • 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]:

     How inly sorrow gripes his soul.

5. (intransitive, now archaic except in passive) To suffer griping pains.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     the griping of an hungry belly

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To make a grab (to, towards, at or upon something).
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 14]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     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.

7. (archaic, transitive) To seize or grasp.
   • 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:

     Wouldst thou gripe both gain and pleasure?

   • 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:

     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:

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

     Unclutch his griping hand.

gripe (plural gripes)

1. A complaint, often a petty or trivial one.
2. (nautical) A wire rope, often used on davits and other life raft launching systems.
3. (obsolete) Grasp; clutch; grip.
   • 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]:

     A barren sceptre in my gripe.

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

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

   • 1833, Mary Shelley, The Mortal Immortal:

     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!"

4. (obsolete) That which is grasped; a handle; a grip.

   the gripe of a sword

5. (engineering, dated) A device for grasping or holding anything; a brake to stop a wheel.
6. (obsolete) Oppression; cruel exaction; affliction; pinching distress.

   the gripe of poverty

   • 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:

     '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.

7. (chiefly in the plural) Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.

gripe (plural gripes)

1. Alternative form of grype.

• Greip, Griep

Attested since 1853. Borrowed from French grippe

• Rhymes: -ipe
• Hyphenation: gri‧pe

gripe m or f (plural gripes)

1. (pathology) flu, influenza

   Synonyms: gripallada, gripalleira, gripaxe

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “gripe”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “gripe”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “gripe”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɡriː.pɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɡriː.pe]

grīpe

1. ablative singular of grīps

Inherited from Old English gripe, from Proto-West Germanic *gripi, from Proto-Germanic *gripiz.

• grepe, grippe, grype

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡrip(ə)/, /ˈɡreːp(ə)/

gripe (plural grippes or gripen)

1. Gripping or grabbing; taking with the hand.
2. (rare) A small group or collection of things.
3. (rare) An assault or attack.
4. (rare) A twinge; a sharp pain.

• gripel

• English: grip
  • → Dutch: grip
• Scots: grip, grup
• Yola: grip

• “grip(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 22 November 2018.

Borrowed from Old French gripe, from Latin gryps, grȳphus, from Ancient Greek γρῡ́ψ (grū́ps).

• grijp, grip, grippe, gryp, grype, gryyp

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡrip(ə)/, /ˈɡriːp(ə)/

gripe (plural gripes)

1. A griffin (mythological beast; also in heraldry).
2. A vulture (compare modern English griffon vulture).

• English: grip (obsolete)

• “grī̆p(e, n.(3).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 22 November 2018.

gripe

1. alternative form of gripen

• grip (Föhr-Amrum, Sylt)

From Old Frisian grīpa, from Proto-West Germanic *grīpan, from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną.

• (Mooring) IPA^(key): [ˈɡrɪpʰə]

gripe

1. (Mooring) to grab, take, seize

From Danish gribe (“to grab”), from Old Norse grípa (“to grab”), from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreyb- (“to grasp, grab”). Cognate with Danish gribe, Swedish gripa, Icelandic grípa, English gripe, Dutch grijpen, German greifen.

gripe (imperative grip, present tense griper, simple past grep or greip, past participle grepet, present participle gripende)

1. to grab, grasp, grip
2. to seize (grab, capture).
3. to seize (take advantage of an opportunity).

• grep

• “gripe” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “gripe” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

• IPA^(key): /²ɡriːpə/

gripe (present tense grip, past tense greip, past participle gripe, passive infinitive gripast, present participle gripande, imperative grip)

1. alternative form of gripa

• gripe dagen
• gripe inn

From Proto-West Germanic *gripi, from Proto-Germanic *gripiz. Cognate with Old High German *grif (in hantgrif, etc.; > modern German Griff), Old Norse gripr.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡri.pe/

gripe m

1. grip, clutch, grasp
2. costliness, preciousness

Strong i-stem:

• ongripe

• Middle English: gripe, grepe, grippe, grype
  • English: grip
    • → Dutch: grip
  • Scots: grip, grup
  • Yola: grip

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• grīpe: IPA^(key): /ˈɡriː.pe/
• gripe: IPA^(key): /ˈɡri.pe/

grīpe

1. inflection of grīpan:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. singular present subjunctive

gripe

1. inflection of grīpan:
   1. second-person singular past indicative
   2. singular past subjunctive

• Audio (Brazil (Caipira)):

  (file)

From French grippe.

• grippe (obsolete)

gripe f (plural gripes)

1. the flu, influenza

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

gripe

1. inflection of gripar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “gripe”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “gripe”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡripe]

gripe f pl

1. inflection of gripă:
   1. indefinite plural
   2. indefinite genitive/dative singular

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɾipe/ [ˈɡɾi.pe]
• Rhymes: -ipe
• Syllabification: gri‧pe

Borrowed from French grippe, from gripper (“to seize”), of Germanic origin.

• gripa (Colombia, Mexico)

gripe f (plural gripes)

1. (pathology) flu, influenza

   Synonym: influenza

   Tengo la gripe. ― I have the flu.

gripe

1. inflection of gripar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “gripe”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

• pigre

From Old Frisian grīpa, from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡripə/

gripe

1. to grab, to grasp

Strong class 1
infinitive	gripe
3rd singular past	griep
past participle	grepen
infinitive	gripe
long infinitive	gripen
gerund	gripen n
auxiliary	hawwe
indicative	present tense	past tense
1st singular	gryp	griep
2nd singular	grypst	griepst
clitic form	grypsto	griepsto
3rd singular	grypt	griep
plural	gripe	griepen
imperative	gryp
participles	gripend	grepen

Weak class 1
infinitive	gripe
3rd singular past	grypte
past participle	grypt
infinitive	gripe
long infinitive	gripen
gerund	gripen n
auxiliary	hawwe
indicative	present tense	past tense
1st singular	gryp	grypte
2nd singular	grypst	gryptest
clitic form	grypsto	gryptesto
3rd singular	grypt	grypte
plural	gripe	grypten
imperative	gryp
participles	gripend	grypt

• begripe

• “gripe (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011