gripe
Americanverb (used without object)
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gripes,
present (3rd person singular)
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griped,
past participle, past
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griping
present participle
verb (used with object)
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gripes,
present (3rd person singular)
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griped,
past participle, past
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griping
present participle
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Informal. to annoy or irritate.
His tone of voice gripes me.
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to produce pain in (the bowels) as if by constriction.
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to distress, afflict, or oppress.
poverty that gripes and pinches us.
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Nautical. to secure (a lifeboat) to a deck or against a pudding boom on davits.
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Archaic.
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to seize and hold firmly with the hand, claws, etc.; grasp; clutch.
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to greedily take possession of and hold tightly.
The miser gripes his money for fear of losing it.
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noun
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gripes
plural
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Informal. a nagging complaint.
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Pathology. Usually gripes. an intermittent spasmodic pain in the bowels.
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something that grips or clutches; a claw or grip.
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Nautical.
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a lashing or chain by which a boat is secured to a deck or in position on davits.
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Also called gripe piece. a curved timber connecting the stem or cutwater of a wooden hull with the keel.
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the exterior angle or curve formed by this piece; forefoot.
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the forward end of the dished keel of a metal hull.
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Archaic.
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the act of gripping, grasping, or clutching.
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a firm hold; clutch.
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mastery; hold; control.
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Rare. a handle, hilt, etc.
verb
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informal (intr) to complain, esp in a persistent nagging manner
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to cause sudden intense pain in the intestines of (a person) or (of a person) to experience this pain
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(intr) nautical (of a ship) to tend to come up into the wind in spite of the helm
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archaic to clutch; grasp
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archaic (tr) to afflict
noun
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(usually plural) a sudden intense pain in the intestines; colic
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informal a complaint or grievance
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rare
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the act of gripping
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a firm grip
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a device that grips
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(in plural) nautical the lashings that secure a boat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gripesimple
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gripessimple
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have gripedperfect
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has gripedperfect
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am gripingprogressive
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are gripingprogressive
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is gripingprogressive
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have been gripingperfect progressive
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has been gripingperfect progressive
Past
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gripedsimple
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had gripedperfect
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was gripingprogressive
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were gripingprogressive
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had been gripingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gripe
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English gripen, Old English grīpan; cognate with Dutch grijpen, German griefen; see grip, grope
Explanation
The word gripe, as both noun and verb, refers to a minor complaint. Why gripe about the size of the portions when the food is so awful? The key to gripe is that as complaints go, it's trivial. You don't gripe about your house burning down or the cost of medical care. You gripe about your friend's status updates and the fact the Yankees have too much money. A gripe can last a while. For example, the city has been hearing gripes about parking rules for a generation, but as complaints go, it's just not getting a lot of traction. One person's gripe, however, can be another person's major headache. It all depends on your point of view.
Vocabulary lists containing gripe
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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:
Top executives seem to view them as unnecessary speed bumps on the highway to innovation, and rank-and-file workers love to gripe about layers of bosses who do, what, exactly?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
When Mary would gripe, she said, her dad would laugh or “just keep working.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Much about the grimy parts of Burning Man is left unmentioned, leaving it up to Redditors to gripe about sanitation pile-ups departing Burners leave in nearby towns.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
A major challenge is electricity prices, which are significantly higher than in other big economies like China or India, a regular gripe of Germany's vast industrial sector.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
It concairned a hand and arm, in samite, with a bridle and a candle in its gripe.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
While I spoke with 20 people for this piece, I received 178 individual responses of all kinds, ranging from shock and awe to relative disappointment to distinctly modern moviegoing gripes.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026
On listing day, X was littered with gripes from those who received far fewer than they requested.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
It’s a “three-ring circus”: the merits docket, the shadow docket, and the justices’ increasingly public intramural snipings and gripes.
From Slate ● May 30, 2026
This was an increase from just over 70,000 in 2020-21, with one of the main gripes about poor response times.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
I listened to their gripes and just smiled.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
Executives griped to Dimon about what they saw as Bisignano’s use of company resources for his own benefit, including allegations Bisignano misused the corporate jet for personal purposes, people familiar with the matter said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Neither of these merit calls to the Federal Communications Commission, but past complainants griped about less.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2026
In the early days of Monday Night Football, Howard Cosell, the original sports media provocateur, often griped about former NFL players leaving the field and walking into the booth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2025
“The system here is broken on many levels,” she griped in a statement.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2025
“Hume means everything to us. Unless he recovers quickly and regains condition we won’t have much chance,” Ulbrickson had griped to the Associated Press a week before.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
The glib response to someone griping about his job is, “Well, it’s not coal mining!”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
The 56-year-old native of upstate New York left his first term on the board prematurely in 2011, griping over policy differences.
From Barron's ● May 12, 2026
There was much intra-Senate grousing and griping and bickering in the days preceding Friday morning’s vote.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2026
Some of the pieces in the book written before this real-life catastrophe, though, suffer from the rote world-weariness of the columnist accustomed to griping to order.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
But I mustn’t waste any more of your time griping about disgusting old men.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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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.
