Definition of "gripe" in English

verb

1. (intransitive, informal) To complain; to whine.

2. (transitive, informal) To annoy or bother.

   • What's griping you?

3. (nautical) To tend to come up into the wind, as a ship which, when sailing close-hauled, requires constant labour at the helm.

4. (obsolete, transitive) To pinch; to distress. Specifically, to cause pinching and spasmodic pain to the bowels of, as by the effects of certain purgative or indigestible substances.

5. (intransitive, now archaic except in passive) To suffer griping pains.

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To make a grab (to, towards, at or upon something).

7. (archaic, transitive) To seize or grasp.

noun

1. A complaint, often a petty or trivial one.

2. (nautical) A wire rope, often used on davits and other life raft launching systems.

3. (obsolete) Grasp; clutch; grip.

4. (obsolete) That which is grasped; a handle; a grip.

   • the gripe of a sword

5. (engineering, dated) A device for grasping or holding anything; a brake to stop a wheel.

6. (obsolete) Oppression; cruel exaction; affliction; pinching distress.

   • the gripe of poverty
   • 'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

7. (chiefly in the plural) Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.

noun

1. Alternative form of grype.