adjective
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rough or surly in manner, speech, etc
a gruff reply
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(of a voice, bark, etc) low and throaty
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gruff
First recorded in 1525–35; from Middle Dutch grof “coarse”; cognate with German grob
Explanation
Gruff is an abrupt or forbidding tone. It's the kind of short, brusque response you'd give a telemarketer who called you in the middle of dinner — right before you hung up. Gruff is the perfect adjective to describe a crotchety old man who rarely leaves his house and yells at any children who dare to cross his lawn. You can almost imagine the rough tone of his voice as he points his cane at those pesky "trespassers," his deep, terrifying bark, causing all the children on his lawn to immediately scatter.
Vocabulary lists containing gruff
100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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The Girl Who Drank the Moon
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Auggie & Me
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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.
Cardiff's academy manager Gruff Rees has told BBC Wales Investigates that despite "good education opportunities" in Wales, the "trickle" of players leaving in previous years has "become a flood".
From BBC • Oct. 25, 2023
Gruff, empirically exact and oblivious to feelings, John approaches the world as though it were his lab.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2023
Gruff and irascible, Mr. Young, who survived occasional allegations of shady ethics, was a staunch opponent of environmental causes and a tough defender of Alaska’s oil, mineral and logging industries.
From New York Times • Mar. 18, 2022
When Jonathan Persofsky performed focus-group testing for his Green Gruff cricket-based dog treats, packages covered with images of bugs scored very poorly.
From Washington Post • Sep. 21, 2021
It stuck to the premises of Gruff and Tackleton, like a barnacle to a ship's keel, or a snail to a door, or a little bunch of toadstools to the stem of a tree.
From The Cricket on the Hearth A Fairy Tale of Home by Dickens, Charles
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.
