grief

From Middle English greef, gref, borrowed from Old French grief (“grave, heavy, grievous, sad”), from Latin gravis (“heavy, grievous, sad”). Doublet of grave.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹiːf/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːf

grief (countable and uncountable, plural griefs)

1. Suffering, hardship. [from early 13th c.]
2. Pain of mind arising from misfortune, significant personal loss, bereavement, misconduct of oneself or others, etc.; sorrow; sadness. [from early 14th c.]

   She was worn out from so much grief.

   The betrayal caused Jeff grief.

   • 1576, George Whetstone, “The Ortchard of Repentance: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, Diuided into Foure Parts. [...], Imprinted at London: [By H. Middleton] for Robert Waley, OCLC 837515946; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, Diuided into Foure Parts. [...] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, [1867?], OCLC 706027473, page 291:

     And ſure, although it was invented to eaſe his mynde of griefe, there be a number of caveats therein to forewarne other young gentlemen to foreſtand with good government their folowing yl fortunes; […]

3. (countable) Cause or instance of sorrow or pain; that which afflicts or distresses; trial.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Isaiah 53:4:

     Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

• give someone grief

grief (third-person singular simple present griefs, present participle griefing, simple past and past participle griefed)

1. (online gaming) To deliberately harass and annoy or cause grief to other players of a game in order to interfere with their enjoyment of it; especially, to do this as one’s primary activity in the game. [from late 20th Century]

• This verb is most commonly found in the gerund-participle griefing and the derived noun griefer.

• grievance
• grieve
• grievous

• grief in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• grief in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• grief at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -if

grief f (plural grieven, diminutive griefje n)

1. (chiefly plural) grievance, axe to grind

From Old French grief, from Vulgar Latin grevis (influenced by its antonym, levis), from Latin gravis, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us. Doublet of grave.

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁi.jɛf/

grief (feminine singular griève, masculine plural griefs, feminine plural grièves)

1. (archaic, literary) grievous

• grièvement

grief m (plural griefs)

1. complaint
2. grief
3. grievance (formal complaint filed with an authority)

• “grief” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• figer

From Vulgar Latin *grevis, from Latin gravis.

grief m (feminine singular grieva, masculine plural griefs, feminine plural grieves)

1. arduous
2. difficult
3. steep

• gref (typically Anglo-Norman)

Probably from the verb grever, or from Vulgar Latin grevis (influenced by its antonym, levis), from Latin gravis.

grief m (oblique plural griés, nominative singular griés, nominative plural grief)

1. pain; anguish; suffering

grief m (oblique and nominative feminine singular grieve)

1. sad
   • late 12th century, anonymous, La Folie de Tristan d'Oxford, page 386 (of the Champion Classiques edition of Le Roman de Tristan, →ISBN, line 552:

     Mult ai le quer gref e marri.

• English: grief
• French: grief