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View synonyms for grief

grief

[ greef ]

noun

  1. keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.

    Synonyms: moroseness, melancholy, sadness, misery, woe, heartache, anguish

    Antonyms: joy

  2. a cause or occasion of keen distress or sorrow.


verb (used with or without object)

, griefed, grief·ing.
  1. Digital Technology.
    1. (in an online video game) to behave in an unsportsmanlike way or take pleasure in antagonizing (other players):

      I reported the jerk who griefed me yesterday—I hope they ban his account.

    2. to exploit a glitch or execute an online prank that ruins a website or other online experience for (users):

      Posting flashing content to an epilepsy site is taking griefing to a malicious and dangerous extreme.

grief

/ ɡriːf /

noun

  1. deep or intense sorrow or distress, esp at the death of someone
  2. something that causes keen distress or suffering
  3. informal.
    trouble or annoyance

    people were giving me grief for leaving ten minutes early

  4. come to grief informal.
    to end unsuccessfully or disastrously
  5. tune someone grief
    See tune


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Derived Forms

  • ˈgriefless, adjective

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Other Words From

  • griefless adjective
  • griefless·ness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of grief1

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English gref, grief, from Anglo-French gref; grieve

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Word History and Origins

Origin of grief1

C13: from Anglo-French gref, from grever to grieve 1

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. come to grief, to suffer disappointment, misfortune, or other trouble; fail:

    Their marriage came to grief after only two years.

  2. good grief, (used as an exclamation of dismay, surprise, or relief ):

    Good grief, it's started to rain again!

More idioms and phrases containing grief

see come to grief ; good grief .

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Synonym Study

See sorrow.

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Example Sentences

Though tissues are present and tears are not uncommon, the Dinner Parties are distinctly not grief counseling or group therapy.

It warps them and yet makes them, and horrifies them both as it does so—just as grief does.

Energy is sucked from them, the world around them becomes impossible—the Babadook of grief and loss exerts its force everywhere.

The grief in this house is extreme of course; this is a horror movie, after all.

Amelia says some truly terrible things to Sam, supposedly inhabited by the Babadook but really consumed in grief.

A little boy of four was moved to passionate grief at the sight of a dead dog taken from a pond.

They wanted Papa and Mamma, gone to Bombay beyond the seas, and their grief while it lasted was without remedy.

Then I hesitated no longer, but turned away and left her alone with her grief; it was not for me to comfort her.

Then waves of grief broke over her, and she sobbed convulsively; but still she shed no tears.

In a statuesque attitude, she sat, like Marius on the ruins of Carthage, or Patience on a monument smiling at grief.

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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.

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