grouch
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
-
a sulky, complaining, or morose person.
- Synonyms:
- killjoy, crab, spoilsport, grumbler
-
a sulky, irritable, or morose mood.
verb
noun
-
a complaint, esp a persistent one
-
a person who is always grumbling
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
grouchsimple
-
grouchessimple
-
have grouchedperfect
-
has grouchedperfect
-
am grouchingprogressive
-
are grouchingprogressive
-
is grouchingprogressive
-
have been grouchingperfect progressive
-
has been grouchingperfect progressive
Past
-
grouchedsimple
-
had grouchedperfect
-
was grouchingprogressive
-
were grouchingprogressive
-
had been grouchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of grouch
An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; variant of obsolete grutch, from Middle English grucchen, gruchen “to murmur, grumble,” from Old French grocier, grouchier “to grumble”; see grudge
Explanation
A grouch is a cranky person who complains a lot. You could describe your grumpy old Grandpa as a grouch. Use the noun grouch when you're talking about someone who's habitually in a terrible mood. If your usual bus driver is a grouch, he's probably always yelling at his passengers. You can also use grouch as a verb, to describe what a grouch does: grumble and gripe. The word grouch was originally 1890s United States college slang that might have come from grutch, "to murmur or complain."
Vocabulary lists containing grouch
Scrooge, Grinch, and Churl: Wonderful Words for Unpleasant People
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Curmudgeon, Cantankerous and Churlish: Grouchy Words
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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:
In Giamatti’s hands, the dialogue of an erudite grouch sings.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
Discovery, is run by numbers grouch David Zaslav, whose primary interest in journalism seems to be his desire to stop its practitioners from saying mean things about him.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2023
Certainly, an uncharismatic grouch who pronounces his own name differently every other day is highly unlikely to do it.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2023
It annoys me that this type of interaction always comes down to him being the nice guy, me being the grouch.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 1, 2021
“But one thing I’ve learned in my twenty-eight years of living, Bobby, is that if somebody’s a grouch, it's usually because they’re not happy. And if they’re not happy, there’s a reason for it.”
From "The Misfits" by James Howe
I guess the grouches can let a meh day in the team combined or an 11th place in the giant slalom spoil their vibe, but Mikaela Shiffrin is restored as an Olympic champion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 18, 2026
Though he became most celebrated for his endearing grouches, Alan Arkin was a versatile performer, equally capable of drama or comedy, with an idiosyncratic knack for combining the two.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2023
Whether it’s her notation of Archie’s blokish colloquialisms, Clara’s Anglo-Jamaican patois, the banter of two ancient Jamaican grouches or of second-generation Bengali teenagers, the mongrel texture of metropolitan life rises vividly from the page.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2021
Yogi Berra had a good line for the grouches and snobs who complained about such things in New York City, of all places: “It’s too crowded, nobody goes there anymore.”
From Slate ● Jun. 7, 2021
And after that they think twice before working off their grouches on the poor kid.
From The Little Nugget by Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)
We bellyached and we grouched, but really, we did nothing.
From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2024
It’s even possible that I grouched in the lobby afterward about poets and their ambiguities.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2017
“This isn’t fun,” the female crewmember grouched to her male mate.
From Washington Post
Higgins, 51, grouched cheerfully about such matters over an easeful lunch in what must no longer be called the men's bar at Locke-Ober, hard by the Boston Common.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was the sort of man that crouched—and "grouched."
From The Way of the Wild by Rountree, Harry
Beyond all the knowledge and talent, beyond the frequent smiles and occasional grouching, David was a guy who really cared.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 16, 2022
Thereafter, he spent a lot of time grouching about how little time he was being allotted.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 14, 2015
Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Call it grumbling, griping, grizzling, grouching – take your pick.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 20, 2012
Sometimes you need a sane summer vacation to see how habitual our sports grouching has become.
From Washington Post
Yesterday I was grouching because nothing ever happened to me.
From Doubloons—and the Girl by Forbes, John Maxwell
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.
