gruff
/ɡɹʌf/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/ɡɹɐf/
gruff adjective: having a rough, surly, and harsh demeanor and nature. Also the alternative spelling of grough.
Adjective (1)
Verb
gruff (third-person singular simple present gruffs, present participle gruffing, simple past and past participle gruffed)
- To speak gruffly.
- “Who gave you that?” replied my father angrily. “Did you bribe someone?” “No,” I told him. “It was a gift, from some people who really want me to be on this trip.” “Fine,” he gruffed.2001, Benny Hinn, He Touched Me: An Autobiography
Adjective (2)
gruff
- Of goods: bulky.
- […] articles that usually compose the gruff cargoes of our outward bound shipping.1765, John Zephaniah Holwell, Interesting Historical Events..., page 194
- […] which by causing a great export of rice enhances the price of labour, and consequently of all other gruff, piece-goods and raw silk […]quoted in 1869, James Long, Selections from Unpublished Records of Government... (page 171)
Also used as
gruff is also the alternative spelling of grough.
Examples of gruff in a sentence
- The kitten cosied up to the gruff old hound, and all resistance disappeared.
- The team grew fond of their gruff, curmudgeonous supervisor and feted him with a party upon his retirement.
- 'Howaya,' she said in her gruffest voice as she passed by.
Forms of gruff
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | gruffer |
| superlative | gruffest |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | gruffs |
| present participle | gruffing |
| past participle | gruffed |
| past | gruffed |
| Noun | |
| plural | gruffs |
Origin of gruff
16th century, from Dutch grof and/or Middle Low German grof (both “rough, coarse, rude”), from Old Dutch *grof or Old Saxon *grof, both from Proto-West Germanic *grob, from Proto-Germanic *grubaz (“coarse, rough”), possibly from an earlier *gahrubaz and then related with *hreubaz (“scabby, rough, scrubby”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian groaf (“rough, coarse, crude”), West Frisian grof (“rough, coarse, crude”), Low German groff (“rough, coarse, crude”), German grob (“rough, coarse, crude”), Swedish grov (“rough, coarse, crude”).
Perhaps related to Dutch grof (“rough, coarse”).
Words formed from gruff
Words that rhyme with gruff
Questions about gruff
- What does gruff mean?
- Gruff means having a rough, surly, and harsh demeanor and nature.
- What part of speech is gruff?
- Gruff can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce gruff?
- Gruff is pronounced /ɡɹʌf/ (UK).
Words near gruff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gruff (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)-Vealhurl-gruff.wav.
Cite this entry: “gruff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gruff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.