grievance
Americannoun
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a wrong considered as grounds for complaint, or something believed to cause distress.
Inequitable taxation is the chief grievance.
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a complaint, as against an unjust or unfair act.
to have a grievance against someone.
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a feeling or belief that one has been wronged, oppressed, or is the victim of an injustice; resentment.
The conflict on campus was described as the result of racial grievance or victim culture, depending on who reported it.
noun
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a real or imaginary wrong causing resentment and regarded as grounds for complaint
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a feeling of resentment or injustice at having been unfairly treated
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obsolete affliction or hardship
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of grievance
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English greva(u)nce, greva(u)ns “injury, offense, annoyance,” from Old French grevance “harm, injury, trouble, misfortune”; see origin at grieve, -ance
Explanation
A grievance is a complaint. It can be formal, as when an employee files a grievance because of unsafe working conditions, or more of an emotional matter, like a grievance against an old friend who betrayed you. A grievance is a complaint that may or may not be justified. Often a grievance is a complaint about something that breaks a rule or a law, like a grievance filed against a person who builds a fence in his front yard in a town that does not allow that. If that same neighbor plants flowers he knows make you sneeze uncontrollably, you might be unhappy about that, but this is the kind of grievance you can work out among yourselves.
Vocabulary lists containing grievance
The Bill of Rights
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Beowulf
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Good Grief!: Grav, Griev
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some allegations are reported to Parliament's Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, some to parties or whips, some to the Commons Speaker or leader of the House, and some to police.
From BBC • Jun. 12, 2023
Academy Award nomination day is often a Festival of Grievance over slighted films, especially those that have been wildly popular with audiences.
From Washington Post • Jan. 24, 2023
He filed the 48-page ethics complaint with the Attorney Grievance Committee of the state trial court’s appellate division.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 13, 2022
Grievance followed grievance when Roth’s “I Married a Communist,” a withering and purposefully recognizable portrayal of Bloom, repaid in full her own vindictive “Leaving a Doll’s House.”
From New York Times • Apr. 1, 2021
A Grievance In his introspective moments, Roger Austin sometimes wondered why marriage, maternity, and bereavement should have left no trace upon his mother.
From Flower of the Dusk by Reed, Myrtle
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
