Grinny

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An eastern chipmunk, Tamias striatus. Pennsylvania, Western

    "Reason thus, and if your heart beats till it hurts your ribs as a gray squirrel whisks across the dry leaves or a ‘grinny chipmunk’ waves you a derisive signal with his little flag from a log before your very nose, call yourself ‘fool,’ ‘idiot,’ anything that comes handy."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having or resembling a grin.

    "a grinny face"

Synonyms

All synonyms
eastern chipmunk

Example

More examples

"Grinny is a dialectal American English term for a chipmunk."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From grin + -y.

Etymology 2

The phrase "grinny chipmunk" is first attested in 1898 (see quotation below). Perhaps from Etymology 1 above.

Related phrases

eastern chipmunk

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.