Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
GRIEVANCE — GROUNDLESSLY
GRIEVANCE, n. [from grief.] That which causes grief or uneasiness; that which burdens, oppresses or injures, implying a sense of wrong done, or a continued injury, and therefore applied only to the effects of human conduct; never to providential evils. The oppressed subject has the right to petition for a redress of grievances.
GRIEVE, v.t. [L. gravo, from gravis.]
1. To give pain of mind to; to afflict; to wound the feelings. Nothing grieves a parent like the conduct of a profligate child.
2. To afflict; to inflict pain on.
For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:33.
3. To make sorrowful; to excite regret in.
4. To offend; to displease; to provoke.
Grieve not the holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 4:30.
GRIEVE, v.i. To feel pain of mind or heart; to be in pain on account of an evil; to sorrow; to mourn. We grieve at the loss of friends or property. We grieve at the misfortunes of others. We grieve for our own misfortunes, follies and vices, as well as for those of our children. It is followed by at or for.
GRIEVED, pp. Pained; afflicted; suffering sorrow.
GRIEVER, n. He or that which grieves.
GRIEVING, ppr. Giving pain; afflicting.
1. Sorrowing; exercised with grief; mourning.
GRIEVINGLY, adv. In sorrow; sorrowfully.
GRIEVOUS, a. [from grieve, or grief.] Heavy; oppressive; burdensome; as a grievous load of taxes.
1. Afflictive; painful; hard to be borne.
Correction is grievous to him that forsaketh the way. Proverbs 15:10.
2. Causing grief or sorrow.
The thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight, because of his son. Genesis 21:11.
3. Distressing.
The famine was very grievous in the land. Genesis 12:10.
4. Great; atrocious.
Because their sin is very grievous. Genesis 18:20.
5. Expressing great uneasiness; as a grievous complaint.
6. Provoking; offensive; tending to irritate; as grievous words. Proverbs 15:1.
7. Hurtful; destructive; causing mischief; as grievous wolves. Acts 20:29.
GRIEVOUSLY, adv. With pain; painfully; with great pain or distress; as, to be grievously afflicted.
1. With discontent, ill will or grief.
2. Calamitously; miserably; greatly; with great uneasiness, distress or grief.
3. Atrociously; as, to sin or offend grievously.
GRIEVOUSNESS, n. Oppressiveness; weight that gives pain or distress; as the grievousness of a burden.
1. Pain; affliction; calamity; distress; as the grievousness of sickness, war or famine.
2. Greatness; enormity; atrociousness; as the grievousness of sin or offenses.
GRIFFON, n. [L. gryps, gryphus.]
In the natural history of the ancients, an imaginary animal said to be generated between the lion and eagle. It is represented with four legs, wings and a beak, the upper part resembling an eagle, and the lower part a lion. This animal was supposed to watch over mines of gold and hidden treasures, and was consecrated to the sun. The figure of the griffon is seen on ancient medals, and is still borne in coat-armor. It is also an ornament of Greek architecture.
GRIFFON-LIKE, a. Resembling a griffon.
GRIG, n. A small eel; the sand ell.
1. A merry creature.
2. Health.
GRILL, v.t. To broil. [Not in use.]
GRILL, a. Shaking with cold.
GRILLY, v.t. To harass. [Not in use.]
GRIM, a. [L. fremo; Eng. grumble, rumble.]
1. Fierce; ferocious; impressing terror; frightful; horrible; as a grim look; a grim face; grim war.
2. Ugly; ill looking.
3. Sour; crabbed peevish; surly.
GRIM-FACED, a. Having a stern countenance.
GRIM-GRINNING, a. Grinning with a fierce countenance.
GRIM-VISAGED, a. Grim-faced.
GRIMACE, n.
1. A distortion of the countenance, from habit, affectation or insolence.
2. An air of affection.
GRIMACED, a. Distorted; having a crabbed look.
GRIMALKIN, n. The name of an old cat.
GRIME, n. Foul matter; dirt; sullying blackness, deeply insinuated.
GRIME, v.t. To sully or soil deeply; to dirt.
GRIMLY, a. Having a hideous or stern look.
GRIMLY, adv. Fiercely; ferociously; with a look of fury or ferocity.
1. Sourly; sullenly.
GRIMNESS, n. Fierceness of look; sternness; crabbedness.
GRIMY, a. Full of grime; foul.
GRIN, v.i.
1. To set the teeth together and open the lips, or to open the mouth and withdraw the lips from the teeth, so as to show them, as in laughter or scorn.
Fools grin on fools.
2. To fix the teeth, as in anguish.
GRIN, n. The act of closing the teeth and showing them, or of withdrawing the lips and showing the teeth.
GRIN, n. A snare or trap. [Not in use.]
GRIN, v.t. To express by grinning.
He grinned horribly a ghastly smile.
GRIND, v.t. pret. and pp. ground. [This word, if n is radical, may be allied to rend; if not, it coincides with grate; to make smooth, as mollis in L., allied to molo.]
1. To break and reduce to fine particles or powder by friction; to comminute by attrition; to triturate.
Take the millstones and grind meal. Isaiah 47:2.
We say, to grind meal, but this is an elliptical phrase. The true phrase is, to grind corn to meal.
2. To break and reduce to small pieces by the teeth.
3. To sharpen by rubbing or friction; to wear off the substance of a metallic instrument, and reduce it to a sharp edge by the friction of a stone; as, to grind an ax or scythe.
4. To make smooth; to polish by friction; as, to grind glass.
5. To rub one against another.
Harsh sounds--and the grinding of one stone against another, make a shivering or horror in the body and set the teeth on edge.
6. To oppress by severe exactions; to afflict cruelly; to harass; as, to grind the faces of the poor Isaiah 3:15.
7. To crush in pieces; to ruin. Matthew 21:44.
8. To grate; as grinding pains.
GRIND, v.i. To perform the operation of grinding; to move a mill.
1. To be moved or rubbed together, as in the operation of grinding; as the grinding jaws.
2. To be ground or pulverized by friction.
Corn will not grind well before it is dry.
3. To be polished and made smooth by friction. Glass grinds smooth.
4. To be sharpened by grinding. Steel grinds to a fine edge.
GRINDER, n. One that grinds, or moves a mill.
1. The instrument of grinding.
2. A tooth that grinds or chews food; a double tooth; a jaw-tooth.
3. The teeth in general.
GRINDING, ppr. Reducing to powder by friction; triturating; levitating; chewing.
1. Making sharp; making smooth or polishing by friction.
GRINDSTONE, n. A sandstone used for grinding or sharpening tools.
Stone, used by old writers, is obsolete.
GRINNER, n. [See Grin.] One that grins.
GRINNING, ppr. Closing the teeth and showing them, as in laughter; a showing of the teeth.
GRINNINGLY, adv. With a grinning laugh.
GRIP, n. The griffon. [Not in use.]
GRIP, n. A grasp; a holding fast.
GRIP, n. A small ditch or furrow. [Not used in America.]
GRIP, v.t. To trench; to drain. [Not used.]
GRIPE, v.t. [L. rapio.]
1. To seize; to grasp; to catch with the hand, and to clasp closely with the fingers.
2. To hold fast; to hold with the fingers closely pressed.
3. To seize and hold fast in the arms; to embrace closely.
4. To close the fingers; to clutch.
5. To pinch; to press; to compress.
6. To give pain to the bowels, as if by pressure or contraction.
7. To pinch; to straiten; to distress; as griping poverty.
GRIPE, v.i. To seize or catch by pinching; to get money by hard bargains or mean exactions; as a griping miser.
1. To feel the colic.
2. To lie too close to the wind, as a ship.
GRIPE, n. Grasp; seizure; fast hold with the hand or paw, or with the arms.
1. Squeeze; pressure.
2. Oppression; cruel exactions.
3. Affliction; pinching distress; as the gripe of poverty.
4. In seamen’s language, the fore-foot or piece of timber which terminates the keel at the fore-end.
5. Gripes, in the plural, distress of the bowels; colic.
6. Gripes, in seamen’s language, an assemblage of ropes, dead-eyes and hooks, fastened to ring-bolts in the deck to secure the boats.
GRIPER, n. One who gripes; an oppressor; an extortioner.
GRIPING, ppr. Grasping; seizing; holding fast; pinching; oppressing; distressing the bowels.
GRIPING, n. A pinching or grasp; a distressing pain of the bowels; colic.
1. In seamen’s language, the inclination of a ship to run to the windward of her course.
GRIPINGLY, adv. With a pain in the bowels.
GRIPPLE, a. [from gripe.] Griping; greedy; covetous; unfeeling.
1. Grasping fast; tenacious.
GRIPPLENESS, n. Covetousness.
GRIS, n. A kind of fur.
GRISAMBER, used by Milton for ambergris.
GRISE, n. [L. gressus.] A step, or scale of steps.
1. A swine.
GRISETTE, n. griset’. A tradesman’s wife or daughter. [Not used.]
GRISKIN, n. [See Grise.] The spine of a hog. [Not in use.]
GRISLY, a. s as z. Frightful; horrible; terrible; as grisly locks; a grisly countenance; a grisly face; a grisly specter; a grisly bear.
GRISONS, n. Inhabitants of the eastern Swiss alps.
GRIST, n.
1. Properly, that which is ground; hence, corn ground; but in common usage, it signifies corn for grinding, or that which is ground at one time; as much grain as is carried to the mill at one time or the meal it produces.
Get grist to the mill to have plenty in store.
2. Supply; provision.
3. Profit; gain; [as in Latin emolumentum, from molo, to grind;] in the phrase, it brings grist to the mill.
GRISTLE, n. gris’l. [L. cartil, in cartilago; cartil for cratil; Gr. strong.] A cartilage; a smooth, solid, elastic substance in animal bodies, chiefly in those parts where a small easy motion is required, as in the nose, ear, larynx, trachea and sternum. It covers the ends of all bones which are united by movable articulations.
GRISTLY, a. Consisting of gristle; like gristle; cartilaginous; as the gristly rays of fins connected by membranes.
GRISTMILL, n. A mill for grinding grain.
GRIT, n.
1. The coarse part of meal.
2. Oats hulled, or coarsely ground; written also groats.
3. Sand or gravel; rough hard particles.
4. Sandstone; stone composed of particles of sand agglutinated.
GRITH, n. Agreement. [Not in use.]
GRITSTONE, n. [See Grit.]
GRITTINESS, n. The quality of containing grit or consisting of grit, sand or small hard, rough particles of stone.
GRITTY, a. Containing sand or grit; consisting of grit; full of hard particles; sandy.
GRIZELIN. [See Gridelin.]
GRIZZLE, n. Gray; a gray color; a mixture of white and black.
GRIZZLED, a. Gray; of a mixed color. Genesis 31:10, 12.
GRIZZLY, a. Somewhat gray.
GROAN, v.i. [L. grunnio; Heb. to cry out, to groan; L. rana, a frog.]
1. To breathe with a deep murmuring sound; to utter a mournful voice, as in pain or sorrow.
For we that are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burdened. 2 Corinthians 5:4.
2. To sigh; to be oppressed or afflicted; or to complain of oppression. A nation groans under the weight of taxes.
GROAN, n. A deep mournful sound, uttered in pain, sorrow or anguish.
1. Any low, rumbling sound; as the groans of roaring wind.
GROANFUL, a. Sad; inducing groans.
GROANING, ppr. Uttering a low mournful sound.
GROANING, n. The act of groaning; lamentation; complaint; a deep sound uttered in pain or sorrow.
I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel. Exodus 6:5.
1. In hunting, the cry or noise of the buck.
GROAT, n. grawt.
1. An English money of account, equal to four pence.
2. A proverbial name for a small sum.
GROATS, n. [See Grit.] Oats that have the hulls taken off.
GROATS-WORTH, n. The value of a groat.
GROCER, n. A trader who deals in tea, sugar, spices, coffee, liquors, fruits, etc.
GROCERY, n. A grocer’s store.
1. The commodities sold by grocers; usually in the plural.
GROG, n. A mixture of spirit and water not sweetened.
GROG-BLOSSOM, n. A rum bud; a redness on the nose or face of men who drink ardent spirits to excess; a deformity that marks the beastly vice of intemperance.
GROGDRINKER, n. One addicted to drinking grog.
GROGGY, a. A groggy horse is one that bears wholly on his heels in trotting.
1. In vulgar language, tipsy; intoxicated.
GROGRAM, GROGRAN, n. A kind of stuff made of silk and mohair.
GROIN, n.
1. The depressed part of the human body between the belly and the thigh.
2. Among builders, the angular curve made by the intersection of two semi-cylinders or arches.
3. The snout or nose of a swine.
GROIN, v.i. To groan.
GROMWELL, GROMIL, n. A plant of the genus Lithospermum. The German gromwell is the Stellera.
GROMET, GROMMET, n. Among seamen, a ring formed of a strand of rope laid in three times round; used to fasten the upper edge of a sail to its stay.
GROOM, n.
1. A boy or young man; a waiter; a servant.
2. A man or boy who has the charge of horses; one who takes care of horses or the stable.
3. In England, an officer of the king’s household; as the groom of the chamber; groom of the stole or wardrobe.
4. Groom for goom, in bridegroom, is a palpable mistake.
GROOVE, n. groov.
1. A furrow, channel, or long hollow cut by a tool. Among joiners, a channel in the edge of a molding, style or rail.
2. Among miners, a shaft or pit sunk into the earth.
GROOVE, v.t. To cut a channel with an edged tool; to furrow.
GROOVER, n. A miner.
GROOVING, ppr. Cutting in channels.
GROPE, v.i.
1. To feel along; to search or attempt to find in the dark, or as a blind person, by feeling.
We grope for the wall like the blind. Isaiah 59:10.
The dying believer leaves the weeping children of mortality to grope a little longer among the miseries and sensualities of a worldly life.
2. To seek blindly in intellectual darkness, without a certain guide or means of knowledge.
GROPE, v.t. To search by feeling in the dark.
We groped our way at midnight.
But Strephon, cautious, never meant
The bottom of the pan to grope.
GROPER, n. One who gropes; one who feels his way in the dark, or searches by feeling.
GROPING, ppr. Feeling for something in darkness; searching by feeling.
GROSS, a. [L. crassus.]
1. Thick; bulky; particularly applied to animals; fat; corpulent; as a gross man; a gross body.
2. Coarse; rude; rough; not delicate; as gross sculpture.
3. Coarse, in a figurative sense; rough; mean; particularly, vulgar; obscene; indelicate; as gross language; gross jests.
4. Thick; large; opposed to fine; as wood or stone of a gross grain.
5. Impure; unrefined; as gross sensuality.
6. Great; palpable; as a gross mistake; gross injustice.
7. Coarse; large; not delicate; as gross features.
8. Thick; dense; not attenuated; not refined or pure; as a gross medium of sight; gross air; gross elements.
9. Unseemly; enormous; shameful; great; as gross corruptions; gross vices.
10. Stupid; dull.
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear.
11. Whole; entire; as the gross sum, or gross amount, as opposed to a sum consisting of separate or specified parts.
GROSS, n. The main body; the chief part; the bulk; the mass; as the gross of the people. [We now use bulk.]
1. The number of twelve dozen; twelve times twelve; as a gross of bottles. It never has the plural form. We say, five gross or ten gross.
In the gross, in gross, in the bulk, or the whole undivided; all parts taken together.
By the gross, in a like sense.
Gross weight, is the weight of merchandize or goods, with the dust and dross, the bag, cask, chest, etc., in which they are contained, for which an allowance is to be made of tare and tret. This being deducted, the remainder or real weight is denominated neat or net weight. Gross weight has lately been abolished in Connecticut by statute, May, 1827.
In English law, a villain in gross, was one who did not belong to the land, but immediately to the person of the lord, and was transferrable by deed, like chattels, from one owner to another.
Advowson in gross, an advowson separated from the property of a manor, and annexed to the person of its owner.
Common in gross, is common annexed to a man’s person, and not appurtenant to land.
GROSSBEAK, n. A fowl of the genus Loxia, of several species. The bill is convex above and very thick at the base, from which circumstance it takes its name.
GROSS-HEADED, a. Having a thick skull; stupid.
GROSSLY, adv. In bulky or large parts; coarsely. This matter is grossly pulverized.
1. Greatly; palpably; enormously; as, this affair has been grossly misrepresented.
2. Greatly; shamefully; as grossly criminal.
3. Coarsely; without refinement or delicacy; as language grossly vulgar.
4. Without art or skill.
GROSSNESS, n. Thickness; bulkiness; corpulence; fatness; applied to animal bodies.
1. Thickness; spissitude; density; as the grossness of vapors.
2. Coarseness; rudeness; want of refinement or delicacy; vulgarity; as the grossness of language; the grossness of wit.
Abhor the swinish grossness that delights to wound the ear of delicacy.
3. Greatness; enormity; as the grossness of vice.
GROSSULAR, a. Pertaining to or resembling a gooseberry; as grossular garnet.
GROSSULAR, n. A rare mineral of the garnet kind, so named from its green color.
GROT, GROTTO, n.
1. A large cave or den; a subterraneous cavern, and primarily a natural cave or rent in the earth, or such as is formed by a current of water, or an earthquake.
2. A cave for coolness and refreshment.
GROTESQUE, GROTESK, a. Wildly formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; ludicrous; antic; resembling the figure found in the subterraneous apartments in the ancient ruins at Rome; applied to pieces of sculpture and painting, and to natural scenery; as grotesque painting; grotesque design.
GROTESQUE, GROTESK, n. Whimsical figures or scenery.
GROTESQUELY, GROTESKLY, a. In a fantastical manner.
GROUND, n.
1. The surface of land or upper part of the earth, without reference to the materials which compose it. We apply ground to soil, sand or gravel indifferently, but never apply it to the whole mass of the earth or globe, nor to any portion of it when removed. We never say a shovel full or a load of ground. We say under ground, but not under earth; and we speak of the globe as divided into land and water, not into ground and water. Yet ground, earth and land are often used synonymously. We say, the produce or fruits of the ground, of the earth, or of land. The water overflows the low ground, or the low land.
There was not a man to till the ground. Genesis 2:5.
The ground shall give its increase. Zechariah 8:12.
The fire ran along on the ground. Exodus 9:23.
2. Region; territory; as Egyptian ground; British ground; heavenly ground.
3. Land; estate; possession.
Thy next design is on thy neighbor’s grounds.
4. The surface of the earth, or a floor or pavement.
Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground. 1 Samuel 5:4.
5. Foundation; that which supports any thing. This argument stands on defensible ground. Hence,
6. Fundamental cause; primary reason or original principle. He stated the grounds of his complaint.
Making happiness the ground of his unhappiness.
7. First principles; as the grounds of religion.
8. In painting, the surface on which a figure or object is represented; that surface or substance which retains the original color, and to which the other colors are applied to make the representation; as crimson on a white ground.
9. In manufactures, the principal color, to which others are considered as ornamental.
10. Grounds, plural, the bottom of liquors; dregs; lees; feces; as coffee grounds; the grounds of strong beer.
11. The plain song; the tune on which descants are raised.
On that ground, I’ll build a holy descant.
12. In etching, a gummous composition spread over the surface of the metal to be etched, to prevent the nitric acid from eating, except where the ground is opened with the point of a needle.
13. Field or place of action. He fought with fury, and would not quit the ground.
14. In music, the name given to a composition in which the base, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a continually varying melody.
15. The foil to set a thing off.
16. Formerly, the pit of a play house.
To gain ground, to advance; to proceed forward in conflict; as, an army in battle gains ground. Hence, to obtain an advantage; to have some success; as, the army gains ground on the enemy. Hence,
1. To gain credit; to prevail; to become more general or extensive; as, the opinion gains ground.
To lose ground, to retire; to retreat; to withdraw from the position taken. Hence, to lose advantage. Hence,
1. To lose credit; to decline; to become less in force or extent.
To give ground, to recede; to yield advantage.
Get ground, and to gather ground, are seldom used.
GROUND, v.t. To lay or set on the ground.
1. To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, cause, reason or principle; as arguments grounded on reason; faith grounded on scriptural evidence.
2. To settle in first principles; to fix firmly.
Being rooted and grounded in love Ephesians 3:17.
GROUND, v.i. To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed; as, the ship grounded in two fathoms of water.
GROUND, pret. and pp. of grind.
GROUNDAGE, n. A tax paid by a ship for standing in port.
GROUND-ANGLING, n. Fishing without a float, with a bullet placed a few inches from the hook.
GROUND-ASH, n. A sapling of ash; a young shoot from the stump of an ash.
GROUND-BAIT, n. Bait for fish which sinks to the bottom of the water.
GROUND-FLOOR, n. The first or lower floor of a house. But the English call the second floor from the ground the first floor.
GROUND-IVY, n. A well known plant, the Glechoma hederacea; called also alehoof and gill.
GROUNDLESS, a. Wanting ground or foundation; wanting cause or reason for support; as groundless fear.
1. Not authorized; false; as a groundless report or assertion.