grinch
Americannoun
-
grinches
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grinch
Coined by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) in the children’s book How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957), the Grinch being the central misanthropic character
Explanation
A grinch is a person who's so cranky and mean-spirited that they want to ruin everyone else's fun. If you keep being such a grinch, your friends will start to avoid you! Dr. Seuss didn't coin grinch when he wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but he is credited with turning it into a familiar, everyday word. Before the book was published in 1957, other unpleasant literary characters had the name Grinch, and the verb grinching was used to mean "a harsh, grating noise." Describing someone as a grinch today means they're a killjoy or party pooper, trying to make everyone feel as bad as they do.
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:
I don’t mean to be a grinch; Christmas and New Year’s are worthy observations, not media distractions, but could the timing be worse?
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2023
Southwest Airlines was the grinch that stole this year’s Christmas for travelers across the country.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2022
The grinch may be lurking on rooftops and Santa will be waiting at the end of the route to wave goodbye to parade goers on their way home.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 25, 2020
Small disclaimer before I give my answer: I am a bit of a grinch.
From Slate ● Dec. 12, 2019
Photograph: Gilbert Carrasquillo/ FilmMagic Last night Mr Jack Dee, the grinch of standup comedy, brought the fourth series of his sitcom Lead Balloon to a close.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 6, 2011
We are more than halfway through the North American installment of Gianni Infantino’s bedazzled global soccer smorgasbord, and even the ball-deflating soccer grinches among us must confess the action’s been…fairly irresistible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Everywhere I turned, I saw decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all merged into a torture chamber bedecked with lighted trees, inflatable grinches, pumpkins, scarecrows and turkey fryers.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 22, 2022
But as he stood at his corner on Saturday evening, White told the station that two grinches began pelting him with eggs.
From Fox News ● Dec. 22, 2021
People who complain about them are sourpusses and grinches.
From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2015
But she feared turning over rights to use the elf, lest the networks prove to be corporate grinches.
From Inc ● Nov. 23, 2011
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
