Word.ws English Dictionary

gurning

gurning is the alternative spelling of girning.

gurning is the present participle and gerund of gurn.

Meaning of girning

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.

Meaning of gurn

Verb

gurn (third-person singular simple present gurns, present participle gurning, simple past and past participle gurned)

  1. (UK) To make a grotesque or funny face; to grimace.

See all 2 meanings of gurn

Forms of gurning

pluralgurnings

Questions about gurning

What is gurning the alternative spelling of?
Gurning is the alternative spelling of girning.

Words near gurning in the dictionary

  1. Gurney's sugarbird
  2. Gurneyism
  3. Gurneyite
  4. Gurneyites
  5. gurneys
  6. gurning
  7. gurnings
  8. Gurnos
  9. gurns
  10. Gurny
  11. guro

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gurning (page history and authors); girning (page history and authors); gurn (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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Cite this entry: “gurning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gurning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.