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
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Curmudgeon, Cantankerous and Churlish: Grouchy Words
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Out of the Dust
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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
In the 1980s and 1990s, the gripe was “stick to reading, writing and ‘rithmetic,” which implies hostility toward expanding those lessons to more complex ideas like literary analysis, critical thinking, and higher math and sciences.
From Salon ● Mar. 30, 2026
The union's main gripe is that total government spending on NHS dentistry in England has been falling over the past decade, once inflation is taken into account.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2026
Gripe, gripe, the enormous thigh muscles tautened in two convulsions.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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
The announcement of Dudamel’s first New York season, while praiseworthy, brought an earful of gripes about his speaking in platitudes from hardcore New Yorkers unimpressed by uplift.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
If he gripes about the way she handled Thanksgiving, then he has to prove he can do a better job.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
Neither of these merit calls to the Federal Communications Commission, but past complainants griped about less.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2026
“The system here is broken on many levels,” she griped in a statement.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2025
Teams have also griped about dried-out fields and practice sessions that had to be cut short due to the heat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2025
A third member, however, griped that so many supplicants crowd the place these days that he sometimes can’t get a table.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2024
“Dang,” she griped as I opened the door and hopped in.
From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos
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
Plenty of Kobe Bryant fans began griping online about the Heat’s tactics, which they said sullied a legendary evening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
This mostly came in the form of griping that Michelle Obama was allowed to criticize him: "Obama, his wife was very nasty to me. That was not nice."
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2024
We made it to the safety of the kitchen with her looking around in alarm and griping at me the whole way.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
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.
