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:
The GoFundMe fundraiser was launched by Kate Jones to help cover Harrison's funeral and memorial costs, as well as household bills and essential expenses while his parents take time away from work to grieve.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
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
"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
To hope is to grieve his absence and acknowledge the emptiness in my soul without him.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
Madonna grieves for her late brother Christopher on Fragile, a delicate song about their childhood, estrangement and reconciliation, that ends with her wishing, "I hope you found a higher ground".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 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
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2025
“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
He has also grieved his mother Florence who died in December, speaking at her funeral in Nigeria and, by arrangement with the national team, joined up late with his team-mates before the Six Nations.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
“I am profoundly grieved at the loss of my partner and brother,” said attorney John Branca, co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate with McClain.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
Jefferson grieved deeply over the loss of his wife, the death in childhood of four of their six children, and the later loss of a daughter at only 25.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
Then why did Grandmother hold the box so gingerly, as if its contents grieved her?
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
"It's been like a grieving process in a way. I feel like I've completely lost my identity and purpose."
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Nurses preserve handprints and footprints for grieving families.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
"Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers," the statement added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
They did not understand being devoted to a husband who was still alive while grieving the relationship Alzheimer’s had already taken.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
‘I going to drop by the jail on my way to work. I got to send Highboy off to his work, too—else he liable to sit there grieving about Willie all the morning.’
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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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.
