Word.ws English Dictionary

griping

griping is the present participle and gerund of gripe.

Meaning of gripe

Verb

gripe (third-person singular simple present gripes, present participle griping, simple past griped or (obsolete) grope, past participle griped or (obsolete) grope or (obsolete) gripen)

  1. (informal, intransitive) To complain; to whine.
    • In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is...2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in AV Club
    Synonyms:
    bitch, complain, whine, whinge
  2. (informal, transitive) To annoy or bother.
    • What's griping you?
  3. To tend to come up into the wind, as a ship which, when sailing close-hauled, requires constant labour at the helm.
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To pinch; to distress. Specifically, to cause pinching and spasmodic pain to the bowels of, as by the effects of certain purgative or indigestible substances.
    • How inly sorrow gripes his soul.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  5. (intransitive, now archaic except in passive) To suffer griping pains.
    • the griping of an hungry belly1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC
  6. (intransitive, obsolete) To make a grab (to, towards, at or upon something).
    • Therefore, everyman, look to that last end that is thy death and the dust that gripeth on every man that is born of woman for as he came naked forth from his mother's womb so naked shall he wend him at the last for to go as he came.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

See all 14 meanings of gripe

Noun

griping (plural gripings)

  1. Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines; gripe.
    • The gripings are always severe, and a sort of painful descent of the bowels accompanies every evacuation.1824, John Mason Good, The study of medicine: with a physiological system of nosology

Forms of griping

pluralgripings

Words that rhyme with griping

Questions about griping

What does griping mean?
Griping means pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines; gripe.
What is griping the present participle and gerund of?
Griping is the present participle and gerund of gripe.
What part of speech is griping?
Griping is a noun.
What is the plural of griping?
The plural of griping is gripings.

Words near griping in the dictionary

  1. gripgrass
  2. griphite
  3. griphites
  4. griphopith
  5. griphopiths
  6. griping
  7. gripingly
  8. gripings
  9. griple
  10. gripless
  11. griplessness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: griping (page history and authors); gripe (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-griping.wav.

Cite this entry: “griping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/griping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.