give someone grief
give someone grief verb: to cause pain to someone.
Verb
give someone grief (third-person singular simple present gives someone grief, present participle giving someone grief, simple past gave someone grief, past participle given someone grief)
- To cause pain to someone.
- Her elbow has been giving her grief.
- To hassle or abuse someone.
- Fred was giving me grief over the money I owed him.
- Some of his colleagues have "given him a bit of grief" for leaving his house, but Haines is quick to counter that he's following Government guidelines while out and about.2020 May 20, Andrew Haines talks to Stefanie Foster, “Repurpose rail for the 2020s”, in Rail, page 28
Synonyms of give someone grief
Forms of give someone grief
| third-person singular present | gives someone grief |
|---|---|
| present participle | giving someone grief |
| past | gave someone grief |
| past participle | given someone grief |
Questions about give someone grief
- What does give someone grief mean?
- Give someone grief means to cause pain to someone.
- What part of speech is give someone grief?
- Give someone grief is a verb.
- What is the past tense of give someone grief?
- The past tense of give someone grief is gave someone grief.
Words near give someone grief in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: give someone grief (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give someone grief.ogg.
Cite this entry: “give someone grief.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give_someone_grief. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.