adjective
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rough or surly in manner, speech, etc
a gruff reply
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(of a voice, bark, etc) low and throaty
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gruff
First recorded in 1525–35; from Middle Dutch grof “coarse”; cognate with German grob
Explanation
Gruff is an abrupt or forbidding tone. It's the kind of short, brusque response you'd give a telemarketer who called you in the middle of dinner — right before you hung up. Gruff is the perfect adjective to describe a crotchety old man who rarely leaves his house and yells at any children who dare to cross his lawn. You can almost imagine the rough tone of his voice as he points his cane at those pesky "trespassers," his deep, terrifying bark, causing all the children on his lawn to immediately scatter.
Vocabulary lists containing gruff
100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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The Girl Who Drank the Moon
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Auggie & Me
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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.
The Newport artist fought off competition from rockers Skindred and singer Gruff Rhys, among others, to bag the £10,000 award.
From BBC • Oct. 8, 2024
Gruff, empirically exact and oblivious to feelings, John approaches the world as though it were his lab.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2023
If the audience, too, loses track of where things are trudging, the original soundtrack by Gruff Rhys constantly chimes in to describe the plot, crooning, “I want my old life back.”
From New York Times • Dec. 15, 2022
When Jonathan Persofsky performed focus-group testing for his Green Gruff cricket-based dog treats, packages covered with images of bugs scored very poorly.
From Washington Post • Sep. 21, 2021
Why not go over and borrow one from your neighbor, Peter Gruff?
From The Merriweather Girls and the Mystery of the Queen's Fan by Edholm, Lizette M.
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.
