grief
keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.
a cause or occasion of keen distress or sorrow.
Digital Technology.
(in an online video game) to behave in an unsportsmanlike way or take pleasure in antagonizing (other players): I reported the jerk who griefed me yesterday—I hope they ban his account.
to exploit a glitch or execute an online prank that ruins a website or other online experience for (users): Posting flashing content to an epilepsy site is taking griefing to a malicious and dangerous extreme.
Idioms about grief
come to grief, to suffer disappointment, misfortune, or other trouble; fail: Their marriage came to grief after only two years.
good grief, (used as an exclamation of dismay, surprise, or relief): Good grief, it's started to rain again!
Origin of grief
1synonym study For grief
Other words for grief
Opposites for grief
Other words from grief
- griefless, adjective
- grief·less·ness, noun
Words Nearby grief
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use grief in a sentence
Some are funny and light, and others attempt to speak for a world that’s become mired in grief.
As a culture, we don’t seem to recognize the loss of intimacy or closeness in a relationship as legitimate grief.
Politics and conspiracy theories are fracturing relationships. Here’s how to grieve those broken bonds. | Jeff Schrum | February 11, 2021 | Washington PostPitched from that home, he becomes home unto himself—home at the speed of light but slower than the speed of grief.
In Science Fiction, We Are Never Home - Issue 95: Escape | Steve Erickson | February 10, 2021 | NautilusAs Katz makes her way through the world, carrying grief and shame and secrets with her all the while, readers will hope for an easing of her burdens.
For a mother forced to give up her child, decades of grief, shame and secrets | Ellen McCarthy | February 5, 2021 | Washington PostFlipping between the voices of the family members, Hobson depicts the lingering effects of trauma, and the way grief informs memory and love.
Though tissues are present and tears are not uncommon, the Dinner Parties are distinctly not grief counseling or group therapy.
Everyone at This Dinner Party Has Lost Someone | Samantha Levine | January 6, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTIt warps them and yet makes them, and horrifies them both as it does so—just as grief does.
Energy is sucked from them, the world around them becomes impossible—the Babadook of grief and loss exerts its force everywhere.
The grief in this house is extreme of course; this is a horror movie, after all.
Amelia says some truly terrible things to Sam, supposedly inhabited by the Babadook but really consumed in grief.
A little boy of four was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond.
Children's Ways | James SullyThey wanted Papa and Mamma, gone to Bombay beyond the seas, and their grief while it lasted was without remedy.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard KiplingThen I hesitated no longer, but turned away and left her alone with her grief; it was not for me to comfort her.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairThen waves of grief broke over her, and she sobbed convulsively; but still she shed no tears.
Ramona | Helen Hunt JacksonIn a statuesque attitude, she sat, like Marius on the ruins of Carthage, or Patience on a monument smiling at grief.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James Wills
British Dictionary definitions for grief
/ (ɡriːf) /
deep or intense sorrow or distress, esp at the death of someone
something that causes keen distress or suffering
informal trouble or annoyance: people were giving me grief for leaving ten minutes early
come to grief informal to end unsuccessfully or disastrously
tune someone grief See tune (def. 17)
Origin of grief
1Derived forms of grief
- griefless, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with grief
see come to grief; good grief.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Browse