Word.ws English Dictionary

girning

girning noun: a light-hearted competition in which people girn (make elaborate faces) through a horse collar; most popular in rural parts of England. Also the present participle and gerund of girn.

Noun

girning (plural girnings)

  1. (Northern England) A light-hearted competition in which people girn (make elaborate faces) through a horse collar; most popular in rural parts of England.

Also used as

girning is also the present participle and gerund of girn.

Forms of girning

pluralgirnings
alternative formgurning

Origin of girning

Metathesized form of grin.

Questions about girning

What does girning mean?
Girning means a light-hearted competition in which people girn (make elaborate faces) through a horse collar; most popular in rural parts of England.
What part of speech is girning?
Girning is a noun.
What is the plural of girning?
The plural of girning is girnings.

Words near girning in the dictionary

  1. girmityas
  2. girn
  3. girned
  4. girner
  5. girners
  6. girning
  7. girnings
  8. girns
  9. giro
  10. Giro d'Italia
  11. girocheque

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: girning (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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