grieve
Americanverb (used without object)
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grieves,
present (3rd person singular)
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grieved,
past participle, past
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grieving
present participle
verb
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to feel or cause to feel great sorrow or distress, esp at the death of someone
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obsolete (tr) to inflict injury, hardship, or sorrow on
noun
Usage
What does grieve mean? To grieve is to feel or express intense grief—mental or emotional suffering or distress caused by loss or regret. Grieve often means the same thing as mourn. It’s especially used in the context of someone who is mourning the death of a loved one. However, the word can also be used in the context of other situations involving loss or regret, such as the end of a relationship or the loss of a job. Less commonly, grieve can mean to cause someone to feel grief, as in It grieves me to see you so sad. Grieve should not be confused with bereave, which means to take away and leave devastated. Those who are grieving are those who have been bereaved. Example: After losing someone close, it’s important to take the time to grieve.
Synonym Usage
Grieve, mourn imply showing suffering caused by sorrow. Grieve is the stronger word, implying deep mental suffering often endured alone and in silence but revealed by one's aspect: to grieve over the loss (or death ) of a friend. Mourn usually refers to manifesting sorrow outwardly, either with or without sincerity: to mourn publicly and wear black.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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grievernoun
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grievingnoun
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overgrieveverb
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nongrievedadjective
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nongrievingadjective
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ungrievedadjective
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ungrievingadjective
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grievedlyadverb
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grievinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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grievesimple
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grievessimple
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have grievedperfect
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has grievedperfect
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am grievingprogressive
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are grievingprogressive
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is grievingprogressive
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have been grievingperfect progressive
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has been grievingperfect progressive
Past
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grievedsimple
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had grievedperfect
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was grievingprogressive
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were grievingprogressive
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had been grievingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of grieve
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English greven, grieven, from Old French grever, from Latin gravāre “to burden,” verb derivative of gravis “heavy”; see grave 2
Explanation
To grieve is to feel sorrow over something, especially people who have died. The most common use of grieve has to do with death: usually there are grieving family members and grieving friends, feeling sadness over the loss of a loved one. You can also grieve over a pet who died, a job you didn't get, or a favorite pair of shoes that were ruined. Usually there's some kind of loss involved, but as long as you feel extremely sad about something that's happened, you're grieving.
Vocabulary lists containing grieve
Instead of "Said": Words For Sad Speech
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Good Grief!: Grav, Griev
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Bush's Address on 9/11
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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.
See Examples For:
We didn’t have time to grieve before legal battles began.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Puza said Culver CityBus service will be suspended throughout the weekend to allow the transit agency’s team time to grieve.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Tulloch added this can be "confusing" because those removed from a tragedy can feel they do not have a right to grieve.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
"Twenty-five years after 9/11, we mourn and we grieve what happened, and at the same time, we recognize that I am not responsible for what happened," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
Jimmie had been given several months to live, so we thought it would be smart to give ourselves a few months to grieve.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
"Seattle grieves with you, and we will stand with you in the difficult days ahead."
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Heaney grieves the violence, memorializing its complexity and horror in a poem that can stand with Yeats and Auden.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
At 19:26 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country grieves alongside the UK at this time.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2025
“Everyone who grieves has questions,” McKinnon said, “but she had no answers.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2024
“Tell him, please, I long to speak with him....Nay, tell him only that Ophelia grieves with him.”
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Some think Newton was the friend Dickinson still grieved in “Death sets a Thing significant” a decade later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
The family asked for privacy whilst they grieved and supported one another, adding: "We would like to thank everyone for their kindness, support and understanding."
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
“Grown-ups gave me positive attention when—as an actor—I failed, got sick, screamed and cried, killed, grieved and suffered,” she wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
He also asked for people to give him and his wife, author Bella Mackie, some privacy as they grieved.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
And he wasn’t going to let his father know he was grieved.
From "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong
"I feel like I'm still very much grieving but I can just go and sit there and think about her and reflect on things."
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
"Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers," the statement added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
“Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers,” the department said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Sometime during the second half of 1863, she wrote one of her best poems, “Death sets a Thing significant,” on grieving the dead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
He sends Vincent chocolate, just as Vincent had done for him all those years ago when Theo was grieving for Annet and his two friends at the Roos house who had died.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
